QIAGEN Integrates Content From BIOBASE, Including Widely Adopted HGMD, With its Leading Offering for Biological Data Interpretation

HILDEN, Germany and GERMANTOWN, Maryland, May 20, 2014 /PRNewswire/ --

• New biomedical content resources strengthen QIAGEN's industry-leading bioinformatics portfolio 
• Expansion will offer clinical researchers the most comprehensive, high-quality and up-to-date literature source for gene variant and disease phenotype associations 
• Expert-curated hereditary variants from HGMD are now available to customers using QIAGEN's Ingenuity Variant Analysis - shows commitment to use synergies for rapid integration.

QIAGEN N.V. (NASDAQ: QGEN; Frankfurt Prime Standard: QIA) today announced the expansion of its industry-leading portfolio of bioinformatics solutions with additional content from BIOBASE, a provider of expertly curated biological databases, software and services. With access to HGMD, an especially in clinical markets widely used biomedical data resource as well as to other unique content, QIAGEN expand its world's most comprehensive, high-quality and up-to-date literature source for clinical research and diagnosis - further strengthening its market-leading position in the analysis and interpretation of sequencing data. QIAGEN's growing bioinformatics and next-generation sequencing (NGS) franchises is positioned to benefit from the integration of BIOBASE, its assets and employees and will benefit the expansion of relationships with thousands of clinical labs and NGS users in life sciences.

"The ability of next-generation sequencing to rapidly deliver genomic insights is opening up new frontiers for clinical research and medicine, and QIAGEN is strategically addressing customers' needs to interpret the massive amounts of data generated by NGS. With HGMD and other content from BIOBASE, a respected organization with a dedicated team and robust line of unique databases and software, QIAGEN is further extending its competitive advantage as the overall market leader for clinical interpretation of human sequencing data," said Peer M. Schatz, Chief Executive Officer of QIAGEN. "Already today, more than 15,000 users worldwide rely on QIAGEN's bioinformatics products for interpretation - and have processed over of over a quarter of a million genome sequences. HGMD is a unique fit with our offering and will integrate well. We expect to drive additional adoption of this leading literature-based knowledge base used by clinical reference labs for annotating hereditary variants, as well as BIOBASE' other solutions by having integrated them into interpretation solutions shared with our Ingenuity Knowledge Base - adding value for QIAGEN and BIOBASE customers and accelerating our growth drivers in NGS and bioinformatics."

BIOBASE offers well-structured interpretation solutions assembled by highly qualified subject-matter experts and organized in an accessible and easily searchable manner that enables scientists and clinical labs to identify connections between disparate pieces of information and apply that knowledge. In addition to continuing to market BIOBASE products on a standalone basis, QIAGEN already began integrating first products into QIAGEN's expanding Ingenuity Knowledge Base and the QIAGEN bioinformatics solutions that draw upon it, including:

• HGMD^® Human Gene Mutation Database - providing comprehensive data on human inherited disease mutations. Widely used in human genetics research, diagnostics and personal genomics, HGMD enables quick access to single mutation queries and advanced search applications.
• PGMD™ PharmacoGenomic Mutation Database - identifying all published gene variants that have been shown to affect drug response in patients, with multiple delivery models for accessing this data, including an intuitive exploratory interface and a data download for in-house analysis systems.

"Interpretation of sequencing data requires access to high-quality, expert-curated content to be able to quickly and reliably assess the most up-to-date information about variants and associated phenotypes from sequencing data", said Madhuri Hegde, Executive Director, Emory Genetics Laboratory. "Integrating BIOBASE content offerings such as HGMD and PGMD into QIAGEN's growing informatics portfolio and leveraging it with industry leading tools like Ingenuity Variant Analysis and Ingenuity Clinical will be invaluable to clinical labs launching sequence-based diagnostic tests."

HGMD integration is now available to customers of QIAGEN's Ingenuity Variant Analysis. Rapid further integration of BIOBASE solutions with QIAGEN's Ingenuity Knowledge Base will help create a springboard for Ingenuity^® Clinical, QIAGEN's forthcoming clinical NGS decision-support solution. Ingenuity Clinical is a new web-based solution to deliver faster, easier-to-use and high-confidence clinical interpretation and reporting of insights from NGS-based tests. More than 20 clinical testing laboratories are taking part in an early access program for Ingenuity Clinical, which is specifically designed to address challenges of scale, speed and decision support for healthcare laboratories adopting NGS. At the same time, free academic versions of HGMD and PGMD as well as other leading products such as Proteome and Transfac will remain available at http://www.biobase-international.com/products.

BIOBASE was founded in 1997 and is based in Wolfenbüttel, Germany, with branch offices in the United States, India and Japan. More than 600 customers worldwide, including pharmaceutical, academic and research institutions, use BIOBASE products. Michael Tysiak, Chief Executive Officer of BIOBASE, will join QIAGEN as General Manager of QIAGEN Wolfenbüttel, the new name for the business.

Financial terms were not disclosed.

About QIAGEN 

QIAGEN N.V., a Netherlands-based holding company, is the leading global provider of Sample & Assay Technologies that are used to transform biological materials into valuable molecular information. Sample technologies are used to isolate and process DNA, RNA and proteins from biological samples such as blood or tissue. Assay technologies are then used to make these isolated biomolecules visible and ready for interpretation. QIAGEN markets more than 500 products around the world, selling both consumable kits and automation systems to customers through four customer classes: Molecular Diagnostics (human healthcare), Applied Testing (forensics, veterinary testing and food safety), Pharma (pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies) and Academia (life sciences research). As of March 31, 2014, QIAGEN employed approximately 4,000 people in over 35 locations worldwide. Further information can be found at http://www.qiagen.com.

Certain of the statements contained in this news release may be considered forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the U.S. Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. To the extent that any of the statements contained herein relating to QIAGEN's products, markets, strategy or operating results, including without limitation its expected operating results, new product developments, new product launches, regulatory submissions, and financing plans are forward-looking, such statements are based on current expectations and assumptions that involve a number of uncertainties and risks. Such uncertainties and risks include, but are not limited to, risks associated with management of growth and international operations (including the effects of currency fluctuations, regulatory processes and dependence on logistics), variability of operating results and allocations between customer classes, the commercial development of markets for our products in applied testing, personalized healthcare, clinical research, proteomics, women's health/HPV testing and nucleic acid-based molecular diagnostics; changing relationships with customers, suppliers and strategic partners; competition; rapid or unexpected changes in technologies; fluctuations in demand for QIAGEN's products (including fluctuations due to general economic conditions, the level and timing of customers' funding, budgets and other factors); our ability to obtain regulatory approval of our products; difficulties in successfully adapting QIAGEN's products to integrated solutions and producing such products; the ability of QIAGEN to identify and develop new products and to differentiate and protect our products from competitors' products; market acceptance of QIAGEN's new products, the consummation of acquisitions, and the integration of acquired technologies and businesses. For further information, please refer to the discussions in reports that QIAGEN has filed with, or furnished to, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). 

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SOURCE Qiagen