Exicon Co., Ltd. — M&A Activity 2016

May 24, 2016

Copenhagen, 2016-05-24 08:51 CEST (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) --

Announcement No. 13/2016

To Nasdaq Copenhagen

Exiqon A/S (Nasdaq Copenhagen: “EXQ”) today reiterated the Board of Directors’
support to the takeover offer submitted by QIAGEN N.V to buy the share capital
of Exiqon A/S. If the takeover offer is not completed on or before 6 June 2016
in accordance with the recently announced extension of the offer period, Exiqon
plans to focus future activities.

In a comment, Erik Walldén, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Exiqon A/S,
said:

“If QIAGEN cannot complete their offer after the extended offer period, despite
a recommendation by a unanimous Board of Directors to accept the offer, we need
a new plan for the future stand-alone scenario that has the potential of
generating longer term shareholder value above the current offer. Our industry
is highly consolidated and size is increasingly becoming a competitive
parameter. To more rapidly achieve size, we must accelerate revenue growth. We
therefore plan to focus our resources on life sciences at the expense of our
publically funded activities within diagnostics. Through a new financing round,
we expect to invest more aggressively on two fronts; the development of new
proprietary products, and the commercialization of our recently launched
XploreRNA™ platform. In the short term, we may risk compromising our recently
gained bottom line profitability, however, increased investment is necessary to
achieve higher growth, which is critically important for Exiqon to develop a
business that is sustainable in the long term.“

Exiqon plans to accelerate the company’s current Life Sciences strategy on two
fronts (i) increased investment in to the company’s research and development of
proprietary products including new products for RNA sequencing, (ii) increased
investment in to the commercialization of XploreRNA™, a new proprietary sales
channel developed by Exiqon that holds promise of transforming industry
work-flows by integrating RNAseq data analysis with custom assay design
capabilities.

Additional capital will be required to finance the planned investments designed
to accelerate the company’s growth and achieve long-term sustainable
profitability.

In consequence of the increased strategic focus, Exiqon plans to discontinue
its current Diagnostic segment and write down all associated goodwill of DKK
49.4 million. The company’s current diagnostic activities are financed by grant
income that will expire shortly and new public funding is becoming less
available. The company will only continue the development of the most promising
program(s) and seek to commercialize any successfully developed products for
diagnostic applications in line with the company’s strategy that relies on
partners to obtain regulatory approvals, market, and sell its diagnostic tests.
Exiqon is not a diagnostic company. When the offer period is concluded, the
company’s full year financial guidance will be revised to reflect the write
down of goodwill and total costs associated with the takeover offer by QIAGEN
N.V.

Exiqon plans to call for an extraordinary general meeting after 6 June 2016 to
seek approval from the company’s shareholders to increase the current share
capital when the company’s share price has stabilized.

Additional information

Erik Walldén, Chairman of the Board of Directors, Mobile: +46 70 225 2270

About Exiqon

At Exiqon, we advance the research of when and where genes are expressed. We
empower scientists across the world with best-in-class products and
user-friendly business solutions designed to transform workflows in our
industry. Exiqon operates in two business areas: Exiqon Life Sciences is a
leading provider of flexible solutions for gene expression analysis. Academia,
biotech and pharmaceutical companies around the world use Exiqon’s research
products to make ground-breaking discoveries. Exiqon Diagnostics collaborates
with diagnostic and pharmaceutical companies to develop novel molecular
diagnostic tests for early detection of diseases, which can help physicians
make better treatment decisions. Exiqon is listed on Nasdaq Copenhagen. For
more information about us, please visit www.exiqon.com