Perkin-Elmer's Tropix Subsidiary and Digene Corporation Announce Strategic Technology Partnership.

BEDFORD, Mass. and BELTSVILLE, Md.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 6, 1998--

New System Will Accelerate Drug Discovery In

Pharmaceutical and AgBio Industries

Tropix, a subsidiary of Perkin-Elmer (NYSE:PKN) and part of its PE Biosystems Division, and Digene Corporation (NASDAQ:DIGE) today announced a strategic agreement granting Tropix exclusive rights to Digene's proprietary Hybrid Capture(R) mRNA assay for high-throughput screening in the pharmaceutical drug discovery and AgBio industries.

This partnership combines the technologies and resources of two important participants in the fields of life sciences research and molecular medicine.

As part of the agreement, Digene will exclusively license its proprietary Hybrid Capture mRNA assay technology and provide reagent kits to Tropix for distribution as part of Tropix's Xtreme Screen(TM) offering to the pharmaceutical community for high-throughput screening. In addition, Digene and Tropix expect to continue their R&D collaboration to further develop high-throughput screening innovations with Digene's Hybrid Capture technology.

"This is a significant opportunity for Tropix," said Dr. Irena Bronstein, president of Tropix. "Our partnership with Digene enables us to offer our pharmaceutical customers mRNA screening capability with exquisite sensitivity and ultra-high-throughput based on Digene's proprietary Hybrid Capture assay system. Hybrid Capture relies on nucleic acid signal amplification for highly specific, sensitive results without the use of radioactivity or nucleic acid target amplification procedures and extends the utilization of our advanced, proprietary chemiluminescent technology."

Donna Marie Seyfried, vice president of business development of Digene, commented, "Digene is very excited about our partnership with Tropix and our association with Perkin-Elmer's PE Biosystems Division, a long-standing leader in the life sciences arena. This partnership offers significant potential for Digene in further leveraging our Hybrid Capture technology with Tropix's powerful screening services to provide pharmaceutical and AgBio companies with a comprehensive solution to accelerate drug discovery. Concurrently, Digene looks forward to continuing to develop advanced high- throughput screening innovations with Tropix based on Hybrid Capture that are expected to enhance Digene's future molecular diagnostic systems."

The new Xpress Screen(TM) Assay from Tropix is a direct assay system based on Digene's Hybrid Capture technology for measuring specific intracellular mRNA induction in an ultra-high-throughput screening (HTS) environment. Hybrid Capture technology permits Tropix to provide a highly effective approach to direct screening of large- scale compound libraries utilizing gene expression as a readout. By combining Tropix' proprietary chemiluminescent detection technology and Digene's Hybrid Capture technology, Xpress Screen will enable users to screen cells, as an attractive alternative to reporter readouts, with minimal cell line development and assay development resources.

Dr. Attila Lorincz, scientific director and vice president of Digene, added, "Xpress Screen is the most recent extension and commercialization of Digene's patented Hybrid Capture technology. Our rapid, sensitive test for mRNA expression monitoring complements Digene's proven DNA and RNA probe diagnostic products for use in the areas of infectious disease and cancer."

According to Dr. Michelle Palmer, Tropix's director of pharmaceutical services, "Xpress Screen is the most sensitive assay of its kind, enabling measurement of rare mRNA induction under HTS conditions without nucleic acid amplification or mRNA purification. Through our Xtreme Screen program, we will offer our pharmaceutical customers precisely targeted, customized products and screening services that are required for drug discovery." Utilizing the Company's high- capacity screening laboratory, Tropix will offer Xpress Screen on a custom basis as part of its high-throughput screening and functional assay services. In addition, the Company will offer custom Xpress Screen reagent kits for use at customer screening facilities.

Tropix, Inc., located in Bedford, Massachusetts, is a world leader in the development, manufacture, and sales of chemiluminescent detection technology for the life sciences. The Company's Xtreme Screen program provides a three-tiered approach to delivering advanced chemiluminescent screening technologies. First, it provides proprietary chemiluminescent dioxetane screening reagents to meet the stringent demands of yielding high-quality data across a wide range of assay types in a single platform at ultra-high-throughput levels in a cost-effective manner. Second, it rapidly develops custom screening assays for deployment on screening systems at the user's site. Third, it provides extremely rapid turnaround on large or small screening projects by offering a complete service to perform advanced screens at rates above 100,000 samples per day with in-house or customer-supplied libraries. The combination of these three elements shortens drug discovery time for its clients in the pharmaceutical industry.

The Perkin-Elmer Corporation is a leading supplier of systems for life science research and related applications. It develops, manufactures, and markets life science systems and analytical instruments used in markets such as pharmaceuticals, biotechnology, forensics, environmental testing, food, agriculture, and chemical manufacturing. Headquartered in Connecticut, Perkin-Elmer had revenues of more than $1.5 billion in fiscal 1998 and employs more than 7,000 people worldwide. Information about Perkin-Elmer is available on the World Wide Web at http://www.perkin-elmer.com or by phoning [phone].

Digene Corporation develops, manufactures, and markets DNA and RNA tests for the detection, screening, and monitoring of human diseases. Digene's products are designed to help improve clinical outcomes and reduce the overall cost of disease management. Digene's lead product, the Hybrid Capture HPV DNA test, aids physicians in identifying women who are most at risk of having or developing cervical disease and cervical cancer. Digene's HPV test is used in the U.S. as an adjunct to the Pap smear for cervical cancer screening and is being evaluated in selected European and South American countries as a primary cervical cancer screen either in conjunction with or separate from the Pap smear. In addition, Digene has developed and launched tests internationally for the detection of two of the most common sexually transmitted diseases, Chlamydia trachomatis and Neisseria gonorrhoeae. Additional tests for detection and viral load monitoring of major blood viruses, including human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), cytomegalovirus (CMV), and hepatitis B virus (HBV), have also been launched outside the U.S. The HIV assay is available for research use only. Digene's proprietary DNA and RNA detection systems are based on its Hybrid Capture technology. The Company believes that Hybrid Capture represents a significant improvement over existing technologies because of its sensitivity, speed, ease-of-use, accuracy, and ability to measure viral load.

Certain statements regarding Perkin-Elmer in this press release are forward-looking. These may be identified by the use of forward- looking words or phrases such as "believe," "expect," "anticipate," "should," "planned," "estimated," and "potential," among others. These forward-looking statements are based on the Company's current expectations. The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 provides a "safe harbor", the Company notes that a variety of factors could cause actual results and experience to differ materially from the anticipated results or other expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements. The risks and uncertainties that may affect the operations, performance, development, and results of the Company's businesses include but are not limited to (1) complexity and uncertainty regarding the development of new high-technology products; (2) loss of market share through competition; (3) introduction of competing products or technologies by other companies; (4) pricing pressures from competitors and /or customers; (5) technologies by other companies; (6) changes in the pharmaceutical, environmental, research, or chemical markets; (7) variable government funding in key geographical regions; (8) the Company's ability to protect proprietary information and technology or to obtain necessary licenses on commercially reasonable terms; (9) the loss of key employees; (10) fluctuations in foreign currency exchange rates; (11) the development of new sequencing strategies and the commercialization of information derived from sequencing operations; and (12) other factors that might be described from time to time in Perkin-Elmer's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

This press release may also contain forward-looking statements regarding Digene within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual results may vary materially from expectations. Meaningful factors which could cause actual results to differ from expectations include, but are not limited to, uncertainty of future profitability, uncertainty of clinical trial results, uncertainty of market acceptance, risks inherent in international transactions, limited sales and marketing experience, dependence on third-party reimbursement, competition, dependence on European distributor, extent of government regulations, delay in or failure to obtain regulatory approvals, the uncertainty regarding patents and proprietary rights, and the inability to obtain requisite additional financing, as well as other factors discussed in Digene's Securities and Exchange Commission filings.