Biacore and proterion plan to delist stocks.

Piscataway, NJ 2/20/04 and Neuchatel, Switzerland 2/15/04--Two instrument companies announced that they plan to delist from US stock exchanges. As part of its year-end earnings report, surface plasmon resonance technology company Biacore announced it would delist from the Nasdaq market due to increasing costs, the limited number of ADRs traded and no clear advantages for a dual listing as the company also trades on the Stockholm stock exchange. Proterion, a maker of optical-based instruments for protein and biomolecular characterization, has voluntarily delisted from the American Stock Exchange, citing costs, allocation of resources, a small number of stockholders, low trading volume and the resignation of three independent members of the Board of Directors. The Board of Directors is currently evaluating strategic alternatives for the company, including restructuring, sale of assets and sale of the business.

For the first nine months of 2003, Proterion reported a 2% decline in revenues to $4.1 million. Performance issues at both firms contributed to their decisions to delist from American stock exchanges. Although Biacore has a viable alternative in Sweden, this seems to be the first step for Proterion to be sold. While Proterion has interesting technology focused on life sciences, it may not be capable of standing on its own as a publicly traded entity.