In May 12, 2006, Takara Bio Inc. (Shiga, Japan) and Stratagene Corporation (La Jolla, CA) announced today that they have reached a mutually beneficial settlement resolving their patent disputes in the field of enzyme blends that are widely used in polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technology.

PCR is a molecular biology technique that allows a small amount of a DNA molecule to be amplified many times, making analysis of the DNA much easier. PCR is commonly used in medical and biological diagnosis and research for a variety of tasks, such as the detection of hereditary diseases, the identification of genetic fingerprints, the diagnosis of infectious diseases, the cloning of genes, and paternity testing.

As a result of the settlement, all pending litigation over patent issues in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland and in the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office will be dismissed. Potential disputes in the future will be avoided through cross-licenses of the parties' respective patent rights relating to enzyme blends.

Financial details of the settlement were not made available, however, each company said it believes the principal, direct financial effect of the settlement will be the avoidance of the costs and risks of continued litigation. The companies confirmed that the only payments involved would be future, reasonable royalties to be paid by each to the other under certain licensed patents. Each company also will be free to continue its own program of independently licensing its patents to other companies.

About Takara Bio Inc.
Takara Bio Inc. is an innovative biotechnology company based in Shiga, Japan. As a world leader in biotechnology research and development, Takara Bio was the first company to market PCR technology in Japan and is also the developer of the RetroNectin^® reagent, which is a world-standard in gene therapy protocols. In addition to providing research reagents and equipment to the life science research market, Takara Bio has active research and product development activities in the fields of gene and cell-based therapy, and agricultural biotechnology; and is committed preventing disease and improving the quality of life for all people through the use of biotechnology. Through strategic alliances with other industry leaders, the Company aims to extend its reach around the world. More information is available at http://www.takara-bio.com.

About Stratagene Corporation
Stratagene is a developer, marketer and manufacturer of specialized life science research and diagnostic products. The Company's life science research unit supports advances in science by inventing, manufacturing and distributing products that simplify, accelerate and improve research. These products are used throughout the academic, industrial and government research sectors in fields spanning molecular biology, genomics, proteomics, drug discovery and toxicology. The Company's diagnostic unit develops and manufactures products for urinalysis, and high quality automated instrument and reagent systems that use blood samples to test for more than 1,000 different allergies and autoimmune disorders. In addition, by combining its expertise in diagnostics and molecular biology, as well as its experience with FDA regulatory procedures, the Company is pursuing opportunities to expand its product portfolio to include molecular diagnostic kits and instrumentation. More information is available at www.stratagene.com.

For more information:
Corporate Communications
Takara Bio Inc.
E-mail: bio-ir@takara-bio.co.jp

This article is translated from press release in Japanese for your convenience.

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