Marcy l’Etoile, France - june 7, 2007. Following today’s Board of Directors meeting, bioMérieux announced that it is going to study the feasibility of gradually closing its Boxtel site in the Netherlands. The site, which has 316 employees, develops and manufactures reagents for molecular biology and immunoassay microplate product lines.
The Boxtel site was already unprofitable when it was acquired from Organon Teknika in 2001. Since then, it has never shown a profit and its operating losses total more than €20 million over the past three years. Despite the efforts which have been undertaken, there are no prospects for this situation to improve, due to the increasingly competitive immunoassay microplate market.
Given the vital role that these products play in public health, bioMérieux is committed to continue to develop and manufacture reagents for its molecular biology and immunoassay microplate product lines.
The site could be closed by the end of 2009. As part of the study, the Company will work closely with the Work Council and be supportive of employees throughout the period.
About bioMérieux
Advancing Diagnostics to Improve Public Health
A world leader in the field of in vitro diagnostics for over 40 years, bioMérieux is present in more than 150 countries through 35 subsidiaries and a large network of distributors. In 2006, revenues reached €1.037 billion with 83% of sales outside of France.
bioMérieux provides diagnostic solutions (reagents, instruments, software), which determine the source of disease and contamination to improve patient health and ensure consumer safety. Our products are used for diagnosing infectious diseases and providing high medical value results for cardiovascular emergencies and cancer screening and monitoring. They are also used for detecting microorganisms in agri-food, pharmaceutical and cosmetic products. bioMérieux is listed on Eurolist by Euronext. For more information, visit www.biomerieux.com.