NORCROSS, Ga., Aug. 12 / Immucor, Inc. (Nasdaq: BLUD), a global leader in providing automated
instrument-reagent systems to the blood transfusion industry, refuted today an August 8, 2002 research report by Sterling Research, a division of Sterling Financial Investment Group. Edward L. Gallup, President and Chief Executive Officer of Immucor, said, "This is a very serious misunderstanding of the facts. Immucor believes
Sterling's August 8 research report is based almost entirely on serious factual inaccuracies concerning Olympus, an instrument manufacturer that uses Immucor's FDA-licensed reagents on its PK7200 automated blood donor
instrument. The Sterling report concludes that a significant amount of Immucor's revenues are exposed to potential erosion because Olympus controls a major portion of the North American blood-testing market and is getting ready
to sell its own reagents in competition with Immucor. In fact, Olympus operates in an important but relatively small part of Immucor's overall blood- testing market, and the FDA-licensed reagents Olympus intends to use on its
instrument have been developed and manufactured by Immucor's wholly-owned subsidiary, Gamma Biologicals, Inc." Mr. Gallup added, "Reagent sales for the Olympus instrument are not material to Immucor's operations."
Immucor has demanded that Sterling immediately correct all inaccuracies in the report.
Founded in 1982, Immucor manufactures and sells a complete line of
reagents and systems used by hospitals, reference laboratories and donor
centers to detect and identify certain properties of the cell and serum
components of blood prior to transfusion. Immucor markets a complete family
of automated instrumentation for all of our market segments.
For more information on Immucor, please visit our website at
www.immucor.com . |
