QIAGEN and Eppendorf Form Alliance for Development and Marketing of Life Science Solutions

QIAGEN to Acquire Eppendorf’s N ucleic Acid Sample Preparation Kit and PCR Reagent Business.

Venlo, The Netherlands and Hamburg, Germany – January 5, 2006 – QIAGEN N.V. (NASDAQ: QGEN; Frankfurt , Prime Standard: QIA) and Eppendorf AG today announced that they have formed a strategic alliance that includes co-development and co-marketing of complementary and optimized products. The alliance is intended to link two of the strongest brands and product lines in the industry to ensure the highest compatibility of their products targeting the research, applied testing and molecular diagnostics.

In addition QIAGEN has acquired Eppendorf’s reagent business which includes the Eppendorf “5-Prime” nucleic acid sample preparation and PCR reagent product lines and related intellectual property. The acquired assets represent an attractive portfolio of preanalytical and nucleic acid amplification consumables as well as a very promising pipeline of proprietary technologies for nucleic acid handling, separation, purification and amplification. The assets add to QIAGEN’s core strategic focus. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed. QIAGEN expects the business to add $6 million in net sales in 2006 and $11 million in 2007 and be slightly dilutive to earnings per share based on net income excluding acquisition and restructuring charges by $ 0.01 in 2006 and accretive to earnings per share based on net income excluding acquisition and restructuring charges by $ 0.01 in 2007. QIAGEN expects to incur one-time charges relating to the acquisition of approximately US$3 million in the fourth quarter 2005.

The alliance brings together two market leaders and links their complementary technology portfolios and expertise. Eppendorf is a leader in liquid handling including automated solutions as well as corresponding plastic products and instrumentation along the life science research customers’ entire workflow. It has set the industry standard with products including Eppendorf tubes, pipettes, centrifuges, PCR cyclers and work stations. QIAGEN is a leader in preanalytical sample preparation and has created powerful standards through innovation in chemistry and biology driven consumables for preanalytical solutions, including instrumentation for such consumable products.

Through the alliance, QIAGEN and Eppendorf intend to focus on improving biological sample management and analysis. The availability of combined and optimized products should create significant benefits for customers in research, applied testing and molecular diagnostics.

“Eppendorf’s brand and technical capabilities in many areas including plasticware and liquid handling are legendary in the life science markets. The strong and now aligned brands, product portfolios and innovation engines create a broad array of opportunities to provide significant customer benefits”, said QIAGEN’s Chief Executive Officer Peer Schatz. “Functionalizing Eppendorf solutions with QIAGEN’s biological and chemical preanalytical capabilities will allow both partners to take ease-of-use and capabilities of molecular biology methods to new levels.”

“Both brands are each considered to be leading brands in their respective markets and are in leagues of their own in terms of reliability and quality”, said Klaus Fink, Eppendorf AG’s Chief Executive Officer. “Eppendorf’s brand reaches into many areas of science whereas QIAGEN is heavily focused on life science research, applied molecular testing and molecular diagnostics. We believe that this alliance with QIAGEN has the potential to significantly increase the value proposition of Eppendorf products in those areas. Together, our brands address entire workflows with instrumentation as well as consumables and cover the core processes of laboratories employing molecular biology methods. “



About QIAGEN:

QIAGEN N.V., a Netherlands holding company with subsidiaries in Germany, the United States, Japan, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, France, Italy, Australia, Norway, Austria, Canada, China, Sweden, and the Netherlands believes it is the world ’ s leading provider of innovative enabling technologies and products for molecular diagnostics solutions and preanalytical sample preparation for the separation, purification and handling of nucleic acids and proteins. QIAGEN has developed a comprehensive portfolio of more than 320 proprietary, consumable products for nucleic acid and protein separation, purification and handling, nucleic acid amplification, as well as automated instrumentation, synthetic nucleic acid products and related services. QIAGEN ’ s products are sold in more than 42 countries throughout the world to academic research markets and to leading pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. In addition, QIAGEN is positioning its products for sale into developing commercial markets, including applied testing markets, clinical research, nucleic acid-based molecular diagnostics, and genetic vaccination and gene therapy. QIAGEN employs approximately 1,500 people worldwide. Further information on QIAGEN can be found at www.qiagen.com.



About Eppendorf:

The Eppendorf Group, based in Hamburg, Germany, is a leading supplier of systems and research tools for the global life science industry with own sales organizations in the U.S., Canada, Brazil, Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Italy, Spain, Scandinavia, Austria, Japan, India, China, Malaysia, and Australia. Eppendorf manufactures instruments and consumables for liquid handling including solutions for automation as well as a range of PCR and realtime PCR products. Eppendorf is a market leader in microcentrifugation with a full range of products for many areas of research. Other products comprise sample preparation, detection and cell technology research. Many of its products such as certain plastic consumables, pipettes and centrifuges are considered market leading standards and have highest brand recognition. In fiscal 2005, Eppendorf employed approximately 1,800 people worldwide and expects to achieve sales of 321 million Euros (approx. 400 million US Dollars) which represents a growth rate of approximately 12% compared to prior year results. More information on Eppendorf is available at www.eppendorf.com.



Certain of the statements contained in this news release may be considered forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the U.S. Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. To the extent that any of the statements contained herein relating to QIAGEN ’ s products, markets, strategy or operating results are forward-looking, such statements are based on current expectations that involve a number of uncertainties and risks. Such uncertainties and risks include, but are not limited to, risks associated with management of growth and international operations (including the effects of currency fluctuations and risks of dependency on logistics), variability of operating results, the commercial development of the applied testing markets, clinical research markets and proteomics markets, nucleic acid-based molecular diagnostics market, and genetic vaccination and gene therapy markets, competition, rapid or unexpected changes in technologies, fluctuations in demand for QIAGEN ’ s, products ( including fluctuations due to the level and timing of customers’ funding, budgets, and other factors ), difficulties in successfully adapting QIAGEN ’ s products to integrated solutions and producing such products, the ability of QIAGEN to identify and develop new products and to differentiate its products from competitors’ products, market acceptance of QIAGEN’s new products, the integration of acquisitions of technologies and businesses, and the timing of product introductions by our commercial partners. For further information, refer to the discussions in reports that QIAGEN has filed with, or furnished to, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Contact Information

Joern Peplow

Corporate Communications

Eppendorf AG

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