Qiagen N.V. and Eppendorf AG have formed a strategic alliance that includes co-development and co-marketing of complementary and optimised products. The alliance is intended to link two of the strongest brands and product lines in the industry to ensure the highest compatibility of their products targeting the research, applied testing and molecular diagnostics.

In addition Qiagen has acquired Eppendorf's reagent business, which includes the Eppendorf '5-Prime' nucleic acid sample preparation, PCR reagent product lines and related intellectual property. The acquired assets represent an attractive portfolio of pre-analytical and nucleic acid amplification consumables as well as a very promising pipeline of proprietary technologies for nucleic acid handling, separation, purification and amplification, states a company release.

Qiagen expects the business to add $6 million in net sales in 2006 and $11 million in 2007.

Through the alliance, Qiagen and Eppendorf intend to focus on improving biological sample management and analysis. The availability of combined and optimised products should create significant benefits for customers in research, applied testing and molecular diagnostics, added the release.

"Eppendorf's brand and technical capabilities in many areas including plastic ware and liquid handling are legendary in the life science markets. The strong and now aligned brands, product portfolios and innovation engines create a broad array of opportunities to provide significant customer benefits. Functionalising Eppendorf solutions with Qiagen's biological and chemical pre-analytical capabilities will allow both partners to take ease-of-use and capabilities of molecular biology methods to new levels," said Qiagen's chief executive officer Peer Schatz.

Klaus Fink, Eppendorf AG's chief executive officer said, "Eppendorf's brand reaches into many areas of science whereas Qiagen is heavily focused on life science research, applied molecular testing and molecular diagnostics. We believe that this alliance with Qiagen has the potential to significantly increase the value proposition of Eppendorf products in those areas. Together, our brands address entire workflows with instrumentation as well as consumables and cover the core processes of laboratories employing molecular biology methods."

Qiagen N.V. is a provider of innovative enabling technologies and products for molecular diagnostics solutions and preanalytical sample preparation for the separation, purification and handling of nucleic acids and proteins.

The Eppendorf Group, based in Hamburg, Germany, is a leading supplier of systems and research tools for the global life science industry. Eppendorf manufactures instruments and consumables for liquid handling including solutions for automation as well as a range of PCR and real time PCR products.