Biacore initiates business review and appoints new CEO.

Uppsala, Sweden 7/19/04--Biacore International AB, a maker of surface plasmon resonance (SPR) instrumentation, announced that the Board of Directors has requested a complete review of the company's operations and that President and CEO Ulf Jonsson has left the company. Executive Vice President and Head of Marketing and Business Development Erik Wallden has assumed his duties. In a conference call, Chairman of the Board Lars-Goran Andren announced that the Board was unsatisfied with the company's performance and current results, and that the business review would focus on three areas of concern: top-line growth and profitability, the development pipeline and administrative costs. Mr. Wallden and other management will develop a business plan to be presented to the Board before the company's third quarter report on October 21. Mr. Andren said that he believes SPR has good growth opportunities, but that the company's products are not well positioned and that it must adopt a more commercially focused approach.

For the first half of 2004, Biacore reported a 19% decrease in sales and a 99% decline in operating income (for second quarter results, see page 12). The company also announced it does not expect 2004 sales and earnings per share to reach 2003 levels. Mr. Wallden was formerly president and CEO of Pyrosequencing AB (now Biotage AB) before joining Biacore this January.