Major Milestone Reached in Beckman Coulter's Cellular Immune Response Initiative; Company Introduces Class II iTAg MHC Tetramers for Autoimmune Disease Research.

Business Editors & Health/Medical Writers

BIOWIRE2K

FULLERTON, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 21, 2002

Beckman Coulter, Inc. (NYSE:BEC) today became the first company to offer commercialized Class II major histo-compatibility complex (MHC) Tetramer reagents, marking a key milestone in the company's cellular immune response initiative. Building on the momentum of the Class I iTAg(TM) Tetramers introduced early last year, Class II Tetramers increase the application of this proprietary technology in autoimmune disease research and position Beckman Coulter as a leader in the immune response field.

"Tetramers effectively reduce the time it takes to evaluate immune response, and can expedite vaccine development and speed the process for determining the effectiveness of therapies in clinical trials," said Bonnie Anderson, vice president and director of Beckman Coulter's Immunomics Operation. "Today Tetramer technology is being used in approximately 30% of clinical trials for cancer and infectious disease vaccines. The addition of Class II Tetramers opens up the autoimmune disease markets, expanding our market opportunity significantly over the next five years."

Tetramers are used to help evaluate the response to an autoimmune disease, infectious agent or therapy. Class II Tetramers detect and quantitate CD4+ antigen-specific T cells involved in diseases like type I diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis and multiple sclerosis. Class I Tetramers, which are primarily used for vaccine development, accurately measure CD8 cytotoxic T cells and have been marketed primarily to biopharmaceutical

companies developing vaccines for cancer and infectious diseases such as HIV.

"For a host of immunologic disorders, the ability to measure antigen-specific T cell populations, in particular Class II restricted T cells, will be revolutionary," said George Eisenbarth, M.D., Ph.D., executive director for the Barbara Davis Center for Childhood Diabetes, University of Colorado Health Science Center. "Developments in the field of Tetramers with defined characteristics to measure these T cells are breakthroughs in the field of immunology, infectious disease, cancer and now autoimmunity."

Over 500 research papers have been published documenting the advances Tetramer technology has provided researchers in the field of cellular immune response.

Beckman Coulter, Inc. is a global biomedical company, headquartered in Fullerton, California. The company develops and markets instruments, chemistries, software and supplies that simplify and automate laboratory processes throughout the biomedical testing continuum. Through pioneering medical research and drug discovery, specialty testing and patient care diagnostics, Beckman Coulter supports all phases of the battle against disease. Annual sales for the company totaled $2 billion in 2001, with 62% of this amount generated by recurring revenue from supplies, test kits and services.

For more information, access the Beckman Coulter World Wide Web Information Service at www.beckmancoulter.com. More information about iTAg MHC Tetramer technology is available at www.immunomics.com.

Beckman Coulter is an exclusive licensee of U.S. Patent No. 5,635,363 and French Application No. FR9911133. Other Patents include: U.S. Patent Numbers 5,723,584; 5,874,239; 5,932,433; and 6,265,552. iTAg is a trademark of Beckman Coulter, Inc.