bioMérieux to Break Ground on Eco-Friendly Facility on the Hazelwood Campus

bioMérieux, a world leader in the field of in vitro diagnostics, is breaking ground on a new facility at the Brown Campus in Hazelwood, MO on October 6 at 2:30 p.m. bioMérieux currently occupies 25 acres on the 230-acre Brown campus. The Hazelwood facility houses approximately 570 employees and is the primary facility for bioMérieux’s Industry division, which provides product solutions to quality control and research microbiology laboratories for the pharmaceutical, food and cosmetics industries. Using eco-friendly technology, the new facility’s design plans will expand the existing campus and will target Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification upon completion. Architect Jean-Loup Patriarche designed the building and other bioMérieux facilities across the globe. The expected date of completion is in September 2009.

The LEED Green Building Rating System encourages global adoption of sustainable green building and development practices through the creation and implementation of tools and performance criteria. For certification, the Hazelwood facility embraces a number of energy saving adaptations, including: natural lighting throughout the building, improved insulation, altered thermostats, and recycling. The 40,000 square foot building will house Research and Development units, including software engineers and developers. Hoping to exceed typical LEED certifications, the new bioMérieux facility will showcase the company’s commitment to not only saving lives through production of vital diagnostics equipment, but to saving the environment as well.

“The new Hazelwood facility is something all of us at bioMérieux are proud of,” said Marc Mackowiak, CEO, bioMérieux, Inc. “This building showcases our commitment to the community, employees and the environment.” The primary focus at the Hazelwood facility is on the development and production of automated lab systems for environmental monitoring, sterility testing, pathogen screening, quality indicators, microbial identification, quality control organisms, microbial limits, and preservative effectiveness testing. Nearly 70 percent of the staff supports production, and about 70 percent of the finished goods produced by the facility are shipped outside of the U.S.

About bioMérieux

Advancing Diagnostics to Improve Public Health

A world leader in the field of in vitro diagnostics for 45 years, bioMérieux is present in more than 150 countries through 38 subsidiaries and a large network of distributors. In 2007, revenues reached €1.063 billion with 84% of sales outside of France.

bioMérieux provides diagnostic solutions (reagents, instruments, software) which determine the source of disease and contamination to improve patient health and ensure consumer safety. Its products are used for diagnosing infectious diseases and providing high medical value results for cardiovascular emergencies and cancer screening and monitoring. They are also used for detecting microorganisms in agri-food, pharmaceutical and cosmetic products. bioMérieux is listed on the NYSE Euronext Paris market (Code: BIM – Code ISIN: FR0010096479). Other information can be found at www.biomerieux.com.

Media Contacts

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Tim Baker
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bioMérieux
Allan Mohess
Tel: + 1 919-620-2937
allan.mohess@na.biomerieux.com