Amersham Pharmacia Biotech Selects SciQuest as Sole Provider of E-Commerce Services Throughout Europe.

Business/Technology Editors & Health/Medical Writers

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C.--(BW HealthWire)--Oct. 9, 2000

Five-year agreement provides e-commerce capabilities, integrated order management and customer-specific pricing to Amersham Pharmacia Biotech

customers through SciQuest's private marketplaces and enabling tools

for the Amersham Pharmacia Biotech Website

SciQuest (NASDAQ: SQST), a builder and operator of private marketplaces and supply chain solutions exclusively focused on leading research enterprises and their supplier partners worldwide, today announced a five-year agreement with Amersham Pharmacia Biotech, a recognized global leader in the biotechnology sector. With over (pound)542 million in worldwide sales of research products and services, Amersham Pharmacia Biotech provides systems to enable pharmaceutical companies and organizations to undertake medical research and drug development and to produce biopharmaceutical medications. This is an expansion of the exclusive e-commerce agreement between Amersham Pharmacia Biotech and SciQuest in the U.S., which was announced on October 28, 1999.

Under the new agreement, SciQuest will be Amersham Pharmacia Biotech's sole provider of e-commerce and e-marketplace services in Europe. The company will utilize SciQuest's proven e-commerce platform and integration services to enable its customers to access enterprise-specific pricing and order online. Customers will be able to place orders via both the Amersham Pharmacia Biotech Web site, which will be e-commerce enabled by SciQuest, or through the SciQuest e-marketplace. Additionally, both companies will jointly promote SciQuest's enterprise solutions and public marketplace to Amersham Pharmacia Biotech's existing 8,000 accounts throughout Europe.

"Amersham Pharmacia Biotech's broad product offering, strong brand, leading-edge e-business strategy and exceptional reputation for quality are powerful complements to our best-in-class e-commerce, supply chain and information services for the global life sciences community," says Scott Andrews, SciQuest's co-founder and CEO. This agreement is validation of our overall strategy of offering value added e-commerce services in addition to our e-marketplace channel to the leading buyers and suppliers of scientific products worldwide. Our expanded e-commerce relationship with Amersham Pharmacia Biotech will accelerate our entry into the European market, and we expect to work closely with our associates at the company to deliver an integrated and compelling solution for customers we have in common."

"Amersham Pharmacia Biotech is excited about bringing the benefits of electronic commerce to our customers throughout Europe. We have been very pleased with the way SciQuest delivered on its promises in the U.S. and we look forward to similar successes in Europe," said Lars-Eric Utterman, President Region Europe of Amersham Pharmacia Biotech. "This collaboration with SciQuest will allow us to offer our customers a choice of either direct BtoB integration with Amersham Pharmacia Biotech`s backend systems, or integration via the SciQuest e-marketplace. Customers will be able to choose the option that best suits their evolving procurement strategies."

About Amersham Pharmacia Biotech

Amersham Pharmacia Biotech is at the frontier of new healthcare, providing the technologies to discover, develop and deliver therapies faster and more cost-effectively than ever before. Its technologies are used to uncover the structure and function of genes and proteins, screen molecules to discover potential new drugs and purify medical products such as insulin and blood plasma. Amersham Pharmacia Biotech, the life sciences division of Nycomed Amersham plc (NYSE: NYE; LSE: NAM), is an international leader in most of its markets. The customer base for the Amersham Pharmacia Biotech's products and technology are pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies and leading research and academic institutions in the United States, Europe, Latin America and Asia. For more information about Amersham Pharmacia Biotech, please visit our web site at www.apbiotech.com

About SciQuest

SciQuest is a builder and operator of private marketplaces and supply chain solutions exclusively focused on leading research enterprises and their supplier partners worldwide. Its unbiased position and domain expertise make SciQuest the best qualified to make e-commerce work for science through enabling technologies, supply chain solutions and e-services. The company's proven technology and back-office infrastructure can be utilized independently or integrated with leading software vendors and supplier systems to unite science, information and technology. SciQuest's solutions, including the EMAX electronic research asset management and planning solutions, enhance innovation and improve operational effectiveness. Headquartered in Research Triangle Park, N.C., the company has North American offices in Mountain View, Calif.; Plainview, N.Y.; and Philadelphia; and European offices in London, Paris and Walldorf, Germany. For more information about SciQuest.com, please visit www.sciquest.com or call [phone] (USA) or [phone] (Walldorf).

Statements in this press release that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. For such statements, the Company claims the protection of the safe harbor for forward-looking statements under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The potential risks and uncertainties associated with these forward-looking statements could cause actual results to differ materially from those presented herein, and the reported results should not be considered as an indication of future performance. Factors that could cause actual results to differ from those contained in the forward-looking statements include, among others, the Company's ability to successfully market the SciQuest brand, to successfully expand its international operations, to increase transaction volume, to attract and retain a broad range of purchasers and suppliers, to effectively add additional products to its e-commerce database, to negotiate favorable pricing terms with suppliers, to successfully integrate its acquisition of EMAX Solution Partners and to otherwise operate efficiently and cost effectively. These and other risk factors are discussed in the Company's recent filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2000, the Form 10-K for the year ended December 31,1999 and the Registration Statement on Form S-1 filed on March 15, 2000.