Luminex to Acquire Tm Bioscience

Luminex Corporation (Austin, TX, USA) and Tm Bioscience Corporation (Toronto, Canada) have announced a definitive agreement for Luminex to acquire Tm Bioscience Corporation in an exchange of stock. Following the transaction, Tm shareholders will own approximately 9% of Luminex's outstanding common stock. Completion of the transaction is subject to the approval of Tm shareholders, required regulatory and court approvals, and certain other conditions set forth in the definitive agreement. The transaction is anticipated to close in the first quarter of 2007.

Tm is a DNA-based diagnostics company developing a suite of molecular diagnostic tests. Tm's products include tests for infectious diseases as well as tests for genetic mutations related to cystic fibrosis, sepsis, personalized medicine, and other debilitating genetic disorders. Tm has proprietary technologies that improve the speed, accuracy, flexibility, and cost of DNA-based genetic tests. The company's cystic fibrosis test is a multiplexed human disease genotyping test that has been cleared by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for diagnostic use in the United States.

Commenting on the announcement, Patrick J. Balthrop, president and CEO of Luminex, stated, "We believe that this transaction has the potential to be a transforming event for Luminex. As we previously announced, Luminex has been evaluating strategic acquisition candidates to advance our growth strategy. With Tm's cGMP-capable manufacturing, proprietary molecular detection chemistries, assay development expertise, a strong menu of kits and reagents, and the complementary assets and strengths of Luminex's partner-based business model, we intend to work closely with our business partners that have relevant distribution channels or complementary products to leverage this new business to the mutual benefit of Luminex and our partners.”

Commenting on the acquisition, Greg Hines, president and chief executive officer of Tm, said, "After examining all of the options available to the company, we determined that the acquisition of Tm by Luminex was in the best interest of shareholders. During the six years that Luminex and Tm have worked together, we have become convinced that DNA-based diagnostics based on Tm's Universal Array and Luminex's xMAP can establish Luminex as a leader in the fast-growing molecular diagnostics market.”

Luminex Corporation develops, manufactures, and markets proprietary biologic testing technologies with applications throughout the life sciences industry. The company's xMap system is an open-architecture, multi-analyte technology platform that delivers fast, accurate, and cost-effective bioassay results to markets as diverse as pharmaceutical drug discovery, clinical diagnostics, and biomedical research, including the genomics and proteomics research markets.



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