TED Ted Baker Plc

RNS Number:8959K
Tepnel Life Sciences PLC
1 October 2001


                                1 October 2001

 TEPNEL LIFE SCIENCES PLC COLLABORATES WITH ORCHID TO EXPAND SERVICE OFFERING

Tepnel Life Sciences PLC ("Tepnel" or the "Company") is pleased to announce
that it is further expanding its portfolio of DNA scientific services in the
rapidly growing area of pharmacogenomics by the purchase of a SNPstream(R)25K
genotyping system and rights to proprietary databases from Orchid BioSciences,
Inc. ("Orchid").

The SNPstream 25K system and Orchid's proprietary database of single
nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) assays will enable Tepnel to provide state of
the art analytical services by performing high throughput genotyping assays
and associated analysis.

Orchid and Tepnel will collaborate to market SNP genotyping services in the
emerging pharmacogenomics market sector for clinical trials in the UK &
Ireland. As part of this co-marketing and technology transfer arrangement,
Orchid will have first right of refusal to licence certain Tepnel
technologies.

In addition, Orchid is making an equity investment in Tepnel by subscribing
for approximately 1.7 million new ordinary shares of 1p each in the capital of
Tepnel at 30 pence per share on 9 November 2001 (amounting in total to
approximately 1.78% of Tepnel's enlarged issued share capital). Orchid has
also agreed to subscribe a further US$250,000 for additional new ordinary
shares at a price of 30 pence per share or the then market price, if higher,
subject to the achievement by Tepnel of certain sales milestones. The
Directors of Tepnel anticipate that these sales targets are likely to have
been met and that therefore this further subscription by Orchid will have
taken place on or before 30 June 2002. On the basis of current exchange rates
and a subscription price of 30p per share, this would result in Orchid's
shareholding increasing to approximately 2.36% of Tepnel's enlarged issued
share capital.

Ben Matzilevich, Chief Executive of Tepnel said "the purchase of the SNPstream
25K and our collaboration with Orchid demonstrates our commitment to position
Tepnel in the rapidly emerging genotyping market place.  Orchid is a leader in
the field of genetic diversity analyses and brings both premier SNP genotyping
technology and important intellectual assets to our joint efforts. This SNP
analysis capability complements our existing nucleic acid purification and
satellite DNA scientific service business. We are very pleased to have Orchid
as our marketing partner."

"We are delighted to have Tepnel join our growing base of customers and
collaborators," said Jack T. Ball, Jr., senior vice president and general
manager of the Life Sciences Group at Orchid.  "As Orchid continues to expand
its lines of product and service offerings, we are one of the few companies in
the genetic diversity analysis field that can truly provide a wide variety of
SNP scoring solutions to fit customers' specific needs."



Tepnel Life Sciences PLC also announced today its preliminary results for the
year ending 30 June 2001.



Enquiries:



Tepnel Life Sciences PLC                 0161-946-2200
Ben Matzilevich, Chief Executive Officer
Mike Billingham, Commercial Director



Hudson Sandler                           020-7796-4133
Piers Hooper

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