Dharmacon Announces Agreement to be Acquired by Fisher Scientific

Acquisition Gives Dharmacon's Leading RNA Interference Technology Expanded Access to Global Research Markets -

12-Feb-2004

Dharmacon, Inc., of Lafayette, Colorado, the leading global supplier of innovative RNA and RNA-interference research (RNAi) products, today announced that it has signed a definitive agreement to be acquired by Fisher Scientific International Inc. (NYSE:FSH) , a leading global provider of equipment, supplies, and services for the scientific-research and clinical-laboratory markets.

Dharmacon brings leading RNAi capabilities to Fisher Scientific that can accelerate a broad range of biomedical and biological research. The acquisition provides unique and proprietary products and technologies, which will complement those offered by Fisher's recently acquired Perbio brands: Pierce, Endogen, and HyClone. Dharmacon shareholders will receive $80 million in cash for all outstanding shares and options. The transaction has been approved by the boards of directors of both companies and is anticipated to close by the end of the first quarter.

"The addition of Dharmacon's industry leading RNAi technology and products will give Fisher Scientific a leadership position in the important and rapidly growing new field of RNA interference, which is playing an increasingly important role in both basic biomedical research and drug discovery and development," said Stephen A. Scaringe, Ph.D., chairman, chief scientific officer, and founder of Dharmacon. "Fisher Scientific is already a world leader in serving the scientific research community, and adding Dharmacon's capabilities is another important step in their strategy to augment the cutting-edge, high value-added products they provide to scientists across the entire research and development spectrum."

Dharmacon has established a market leading position in supplying and developing small interfering RNA (siRNA) for gene function analysis and drug discovery in pharmaceutical, biotechnology and academic laboratories. Dharmacon's proprietary SMARTselection(TM) and SMARTpool(R) technologies enable the design of highly potent and specific siRNA reagents for gene silencing. Dharmacon has pioneered the development and commercialization of siRNAs that are exceptionally stable, longer lasting and more specifically targeted in their "gene silencing" effects with guaranteed high quality results.

"By joining forces with Fisher Scientific, Dharmacon will now have access to the global resources and infrastructure to continuously improve our technologies and products and to make them available to a broader audience of researchers, companies and institutions," said Scaringe. "By linking Fisher's wide range of complementary technologies with our RNA and RNAi capabilities, Fisher and Dharmacon will be uniquely positioned to lead the industry in supporting integration of RNAi approaches into ongoing R&D activities."

Dharmacon has headquarters in Lafayette, Co. where it employs more than 100 people. The company was founded in 1995 by Stephen Scaringe and has been profitable every year since 1997. Fisher Scientific is expected to maintain Dharmacon's facilities in Lafayette.

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