Press Release
February 24, 2006

Inverness Medical Innovations Agrees to Acquire Rapid Diagnostics Business from ACON Laboratories

Feb. 24, 2006 — Inverness Medical Innovations Inc. announced today that it has entered into a definitive agreement with ACON Laboratories Inc. to acquire a substantial portion of ACON's rapid diagnostics business for $175 million. Inverness agreed to acquire ACON's business of researching, developing, manufacturing, marketing and selling lateral flow immunoassay products in the United States, Canada, Western Europe, Israel, Australia, Japan and New Zealand. Inverness also agreed to acquire a manufacturing facility in Hangzhou, China.  The acquisition is a result of a resolved patent dispute between Inverness and ACON that had been fought in the United States and Europe for nearly three years.

Goodwin Procter partners Steve Charkoudian, Scott Duggan and Paul Schwartz represented Inverness in the acquisition and Anthony Downs represented Inverness in the underlying patent litigation.