Oxford, UK and Billerica, MA, USA; 31 January 2006 – Oxford Immunotec Ltd, today announced the launch of a second generation product, T-SPOT^TM.TB 8, for the diagnosis of latent tuberculosis infection and active TB disease.  The launch of T-SPOT.TB 8 culminates a 15-month co-development programme with Millipore Corporation (NYSE:MIL) to develop a proprietary plate for performing the T-SPOT.TB test.   

This plate allows the test to be conducted in lower batch sizes when smaller numbers of tests need to be performed simultaneously as the plate consists of several 8-well strips, which can be used individually.  As such the product complements the higher throughput 96-well version, T-SPOT^TM.TB 96, which is marketed already in Europe and other significant territories. 

Commenting on the launch of T-SPOT.TB 8 Dr Peter Wrighton-Smith, Chief Executive Officer of Oxford Immunotec said, “This represents the achievement of a real milestone in the development of our product range, which will have broad utility across the T-SPOT technology platform.  By offering a more flexible plate, our customers will be able to maximise the efficiency of their TB testing regime by utilising the best format of T-SPOT.TB for the clinical population, while delivering significant potential savings.”  

“Millipore is proud to participate in co-developing products that respond to the needs of healthcare professionals worldwide,” said Jonathan DiVincenzo, Vice President of R&D and Marketing for Millipore’s Bioscience Division. “This successful launch stems from our co-development efforts with leading partners such as Oxford Immunotec.”

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About Oxford Immunotec

www.oxfordimmunotec.com

Oxford Immunotec, the T cell measurement company, is headquartered near Oxford, UK. The Company develops and sells clinical diagnostic products based on its patented T-SPOT™ technology, the first regulatory approved method for directly quantifying antigen-specific T cells.

T-SPOT is a simple and extremely accurate method of studying a person’s cellular immune response to infection and can be applied to diagnose and monitor any major disease driven by a T cell response.  

About T-SPOT™.TB

T-SPOT ^TM.TB is an in vitro T cell measurement assay used for diagnosing TB disease and latent TB infection and the first product from Oxford Immunotec using the T-SPOT^TM technology. The product is extremely robust in that it gives a result every time and offers unrivalled and maintained sensitivity in high risk and immunocompromised patient groups. T-SPOT^TM.TB is approved for sale in Europe and is designed to replace the 115 year old tuberculin skin test. As such it offers a substantially more accurate and effective tool for controlling the spread of TB, addressing a market of £600m.

T-SPOT is a trademark of Oxford Immunotec. 

About Millipore Corporation

Millipore is a leading bioprocess and bioscience products and services company, organized into two divisions. The Bioprocess Division offers solutions that optimize development and manufacturing of biologics. The Bioscience Division provides high performance products and application insights that improve laboratory productivity. Millipore has a deep understanding of its customers' research and manufacturing process needs, and offers reliable and innovative tools, technologies and services. The Company employs approximately 4,850 people worldwide and posted revenues of $991 million in 2005.  For more information about Millipore visit www.millipore.com.

Millipore is a registered trademark of Millipore Corporation.

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