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Rules-Based Medicine Partners with EMD to Develop and Distribute Multi-Analyte Kits

Pharmaceutical, biotechnology and academic labs to gain access to the industry’s largest catalog of quantitative protein multiplex assays

AUSTIN, TX (December 10, 2007) — Rules-Based Medicine, Inc. (RBM), the leading multiplexed biomarker testing laboratory for the life sciences industry, announced today that it is partnering with the Novagen brand of EMD Chemicals Inc. (EMD), a subsidiary of Merck KGaA (Merck) of Germany, to develop and distribute high-quality immunoassay products on the Luminex® xMAP® platform. Under the terms of the agreement, RBM is granting EMD/Merck exclusive distribution rights to the largest catalog of quantitative protein multiplex assays currently available.

RBM will combine its comprehensive testing content with the international sales and marketing network of EMD/Merck to provide optimized kits that enable researchers to measure hundreds of important biomarkers from serum, plasma and other biological fluids.

"While we’ve been very successful in developing these assays and providing testing services to our clients, we realized that we needed to satisfy the demands of the broader research market by packaging our immunoassay products as kits," said RBM CEO T. Craig Benson. "EMD/Merck provides the international sales and marketing infrastructure to distribute these kits, co-branded with their well-known and respected Novagen® brand."

Scheduled for availability in mid-2008, the co-branded kits will be sold to pharmaceutical and biotech companies, and academic institutions. RBM and EMD/Merck will also collaborate to design new products that meet the evolving requirements of their customers.

"We’re pleased to be working with RBM to bring these highly validated multi-analyte profiling kits to the worldwide market," said Lisa Johnson, Vice President Corporate Development with EMD. "Working together, we will leverage the first-class reputation of RBM and their extensive assay content with our global sales and distribution network to deliver a wide range of reproducible and quantitative immunoassay kits to researchers worldwide."

About EMD Chemicals Inc.
EMD provides a broad range of innovative life science research products used worldwide in disease-related life science research at universities as well as in the pharmaceutical and biotech industries. The company is part of the Performance and Life Science Chemicals (PLS) division of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany and operates as EMD in North America and Merck outside North America. Globally, EMD is known in the scientific community through its product brands Calbiochem®, Novabiochem®, and Novagen®.

About Merck KGaA

Merck is a global pharmaceutical and chemical company with sales of EUR 6.3 billion in 2006, a history that began in 1668, and a future shaped by 30,962 employees in 61 countries. In 1917, the U.S. subsidiary Merck   Co. was expropriated and has been an independent company ever since.

About Rules-Based Medicine
Rules-Based Medicine (RBM), the world’s leading multiplexed biomarker testing company, provides comprehensive protein biomarker products and services based on its Multi-Analyte Profiling (MAP) technology platform. RBM’s biomarker testing service, which is CLIA certified and supports GLP studies, provides pre-clinical and clinical researchers with reproducible, quantitative, multiplexed immunoassay data for hundreds of proteins in a cost-effective manner, from a small sample volume and from multiple species. Through a distribution agreement with EMD Chemicals, an affiliate of Merck KGaA, many of these assays will be available as optimized kits in 2008. RBM also performs custom assay development, participates in co-sponsored research programs, pursues in-licensing of novel high-value assays and, through its wholly-owned subsidiary EDI GmbH, provides Human Organo-Typic (HOT) cell culture systems. RBM combines EDI’s HOT systems with its HumanMAP® biomarker testing services to provide researchers with an unprecedented view of the physiological and biochemical impact of a new drug compound or consumer product prior to testing in a human subject. More information about RBM is located at www.rbmmaps.com.