Abbott Laboratories & artus Introduce Automated Diagnostic Tests for SARS & Other Infectious Diseases

Three New Automated PCR Tests on ABI PRISM(R) 7000 System Provide Early

Detection of SARS, Chlamydia Trachomatis and Mycobacterium Tuberculosis

Abbott Laboratories (NYSE: ABT) and artus GmbH today announced the introduction of three nucleic acid-based tests for detecting infectious diseases, including the virus believed to cause Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS).

The SARS test, the RealArt(TM) HPA Coronavirus TM PCR Kit, is based on the highly sensitive real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technology, which directly detects the virus in patient samples for early diagnosis of the disease. It was developed for use on the Applied Biosystems ABI PRISM(R) 7000 Sequence Detection System by artus in collaboration with the Bernhard-Nocht-Institute for Tropical Medicine in Hamburg, Germany. The ABI PRISM 7000 is a complete, real-time PCR system used for detecting and quantifying nucleic acid sequences.

Abbott and artus also introduced real-time PCR tests for Chlamydia trachomatis and Mycobacterium tuberculosis for use on the ABI PRISM 7000 system -- the RealArt C. trachomatis TM PCR Kit and the RealArt M. tuberculosis TM PCR Reagents.

All three tests are available throughout the world, except in the United States, Canada and Japan.

"These new products represent an important step in our commitment to infectious disease testing through a growing portfolio of automated real-time PCR assays for the molecular laboratory," said Edward L. Michael, president, Molecular Diagnostics, Abbott Laboratories.

In May, Abbott and artus announced a worldwide marketing and distribution agreement. Under the agreement, artus manufactures the three tests and Abbott, through its alliance with Celera Diagnostics, has worldwide rights to market and distribute the tests on the ABI PRISM 7000 system.

"Our fruitful collaboration with Abbott on the development and worldwide distribution of our ABI 7000-based RealArt kits has allowed us to accelerate the availability of these products," said Thomas Grewing, representative managing director, artus, GmbH.

About Abbott Molecular Diagnostics

Abbott's emerging molecular diagnostics business provides physicians with critical information based on the early detection of pathogens and subtle changes in patients' genes and chromosomes, allowing for earlier diagnosis, selection of appropriate therapies and monitoring of disease progression. The business includes instruments and reagents used to conduct sophisticated analysis of patient DNA and RNA. In 2002, Abbott formed an alliance with Celera Diagnostics focused on developing and marketing a broad menu of next-generation molecular diagnostic products for unmet diagnostic needs. Celera Diagnostics, headquartered in Alameda, California, United States, is a joint venture between two Applera Corporation businesses, Applied Biosystems and Celera Genomics.

Abbott also has established agreements with Tecan of Zurich, Switzerland, for the development and commercialization of an automated sample preparation system, the m1000, which was launched in Europe earlier this year and Promega Corporation of Madison, Wisconsin, United States, for nucleic acid extraction products that will give molecular diagnostics laboratories the ability to further automate testing for infectious diseases.

Through its Vysis acquisition, Abbott offers innovative genomic tests for cancer, including the Vysis PathVysion(R) HER-2 DNA Probe kit to identify women with metastatic breast cancer who could benefit from Herceptin(R) therapy and Vysis UroVysion(R), which detects genetic changes in bladder cells for use in monitoring bladder cancer recurrence.

About Abbott Laboratories

Abbott Laboratories is a global, broad-based health care company devoted to the discovery, development, manufacture and marketing of pharmaceuticals, nutritionals, and medical products, including devices and diagnostics. The company employs more than 70,000 people and markets its products in more than 130 countries.

Abbott's news releases and other information are available on the company's Web site at www.abbott.com

About artus GmbH

artus GmbH is a biotechnology company based in Hamburg, Germany, with subsidiaries in Malaysia and the United States. Established as a spin-off of the Bernhard-Nocht-Institute for Tropical Medicine in 1998, artus has an experienced team of medical scientists, microbiologists and molecular biologists. artus is one of the first companies worldwide to offer a broad range of licensed real-time PCR kits for pathogen detection applying PCR in the field of infectious disease. Having been granted the license for commercial distribution of PCR in January 2002, artus is entitled to produce and sell diagnostic PCR kits for the diagnosis of herpes viruses, tropical infection diseases and relevant pathogens for veterinary medicine. artus develops and produces all PCR kits according to the highest quality standards and earlier this year released the first CE-marked real-time PCR kit in Europe for detection of herpes simplex virus (HSV) in human diagnostics.

Additional information about artus and its products can be found on the company's web site at www.artus-biotech.com

SOURCE: Abbott Laboratories

CONTACT: Media, Don Braakman +1-847-937-1237

Financial Community, Christy Wistar +1-847-938-4475

both of Abbott Laboratories

Rebecca Bigott, artus +49 (0) 4041 364763

Company News On-Call:

http://www.prnewswire.com/comp/110328.html

Web site: http://www.abbott.com

http://www.artus-biotech.com

--Distributed by AsiaNet (www.asianetnews.net)--

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