Sigma-Aldrich Further Expands In Vivo Biology Offering by Signing an Agreement to Acquire Ace Animals, Inc.

ST. LOUIS, March 16 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Sigma-Aldrich® (Nasdaq: SIAL) today announced it has signed an agreement to acquire Ace Animals, Inc., a Berks County, PA.-based provider of high quality research rodents to the biomedical industry. Ace Animals (www.aceanimals.com), a commercial rodent breeder established in 1973, offers high quality products and contract breeding services, and will operate as part of Sigma Advanced Genetic Engineering (SAGE™) Labs (www.sageresearchmodels.com), a Sigma® Life Science initiative. Terms and conditions of the agreement were not disclosed.  Closing is expected shortly.

The acquisition will enhance SAGE Labs' current rat and mouse breeding capabilities, primarily used in the development and characterization of its unique, next-generation 'Knockout' and 'Knockin' rat models featuring specific gene deletions, insertions, repressions and modifications created using proprietary CompoZr™ Zinc Finger Nuclease (ZFN) technology. In addition, Ace Animals' strategic location in Pennsylvania is expected to greatly enhance distribution of SAGE Labs models to key sites within the United States bio-pharma industry.

Through the acquisition, SAGE Labs plans to offer a significantly increased portfolio of products and services, including a number of 'wild type' (that is, animals that have not been genetically modified) rats and mice, including Swiss Webster, Sprague Dawley, ICR, Balb/c, C57BL/6 and Cotton Rats. SAGE Labs will be positioned to offer contract breeding services, considered a natural extension of its current SAGEspeed™ animal creation service.  Concurrently, Ace Animals, Inc.'s customers are expected to benefit from access to the industry-leading genetic engineering platforms offered through Sigma's SAGE labs.

SAGE Labs is the premier resource for genetically modified rodent disease models and markets its exclusive SAGEspeed™ Custom Model Development program for the creation of knockout mouse or rat models in as little as five months. The group is also developing their catalog of knockout rat models across a number of research fields, including Neurobiology, Toxicology, Cardiology and Immunology.

"With the Ace Animals acquisition, SAGE Labs will be in a better position to offer a greater number of models with the goal of helping researchers understand the functional significance of genes and their relationships to human diseases," said Dr. Edward Weinstein, Director of SAGE Labs. "In vivo models of human disease states serve as more predictive proxies to the human condition, and therefore are instrumental to the discovery of novel and powerful therapeutics."

For more information on SAGE Labs visit www.sageresearchmodels.com. For more information on Ace Animals visit www.aceanimals.com.

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About Sigma Life Science: Sigma Life Science is a Sigma-Aldrich brand that represents Sigma's leadership in innovative biological products and services for the global life science market and offers an array of biologically-rich products and reagents that researchers use in scientific investigation. Product areas include biomolecules, genomics and functional genomics, cells and cell-based assays, transgenics, protein assays, stem cell research, epigenetics and custom services/oligonucleotides. Sigma Life Science also provides an extensive range of critical bioessentials like biochemicals, antibiotics, buffers, carbohydrates, enzymes, forensic tools, hematology and histology, nucleotides, amino acids and their derivatives, and cell culture media.

About SAGE Labs: SAGE Labs, a Sigma Life Science initiative, is a world-class provider of research models, including knockout rat models, and extensive support services. Using Sigma's proprietary platform technologies, SAGE specializes in genetic manipulation of in vivo systems for specialized R&D applications. SAGE Labs specializes in the development and characterization of unique, next-generation animal research models featuring specific gene deletions, insertions, repressions and modifications using proprietary CompoZr ZFN (zinc finger nuclease) technology. This genetic manipulation technology works for a variety of animal research models, as well as a wide range of research applications.

About Sigma-Aldrich: Sigma-Aldrich is a leading Life Science and High Technology company. Its biochemical and organic chemical products and kits are used in scientific research, including genomic and proteomic research, biotechnology, pharmaceutical development and as key components in pharmaceutical, diagnostic and other high technology manufacturing. Sigma-Aldrich has customers in life science companies, university and government institutions, hospitals, and in industry. Over one million scientists and technologists use its products. Sigma-Aldrich operates in 38 countries and has 7,700 employees providing excellent service worldwide. Sigma-Aldrich is committed to Accelerating Customer Success through Innovation and Leadership in Life Science, High Technology and Service. For more information about Sigma-Aldrich, please visit its award-winning website at http://www.sigma-aldrich.com.

CompoZr, SAGEspeed, SAGE, Sigma-Aldrich and Sigma are trademarks of Sigma-Aldrich Biotechnology L.P. and Sigma-Aldrich Co.

SOURCE Sigma-Aldrich