QIAGEN acquires Cellestis

QIAGEN N.V. (NASDAQ: QGEN; Frankfurt, Prime Standard: QIA) today announced that its acquisition of all the ordinary shares in Cellestis Limited ("Cellestis") by a way of a scheme of arrangement ("Scheme") has been implemented.

The closing of the transaction follows the official approval of Cellestis' shareholders and Australian courts. QIAGEN had announced the initial proposal to acquire Cellestis on April 4, 2011. With closing of the transaction Cellestis will become a fully consolidated subsidiary of the QIAGEN group.

"We are pleased to have completed the transaction and will now initiate the integration process", commented Peer M. Schatz, Chief Executive Officer of QIAGEN N.V. "We welcome our new employees to QIAGEN and look forward to further growing the QuantiFERON^® technology together to provide greater benefits to patients and healthcare providers, thereby creating significant value for QIAGEN shareholders."

Cellestis has developed and successfully commercialized the QuantiFERON^® technology, a proprietary approach for early disease detection not possible with other diagnostic methods. Cellestis' QuantiFERON^®-TB Gold (QFT) is a leading test for detection of latent tuberculosis. The QuantiFERON^®-CMV test, which is in early stages of commercialization, enables monitoring of disease risk from the life-threatening cytomegalovirus (CMV). QuantiFERON^® is highly complementary to QIAGEN's portfolio of molecular diagnostics and can help drive the use of traditional DNA- and RNA-based molecular diagnostics.