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Eckert & Ziegler sells Milan-based contrast media business

Berlin, 13.03.2009. Eckert & Ziegler Strahlen- und Medizintechnik AG (ISIN DE0005659700) has sold its Milan-based contrast media business and sold all the shares in its subsidiary company Eckert & Ziegler f-con Pharma Italia s.r.l. (FCI) to the Italian A.C.O.M.- Advanced Center Oncology Macerata SPA. The shares were sold for a nominal price, however, through the transfer of certain payment obligations to the Buyer, Eckert & Ziegler will book a profit in the amount of approx. 0.6 mm EUR on the transaction.

The background to the disinvestment is a change in the market situation for radioactive contrast media in northern Italy. Here the margins for products for positron emission tomography, an innovative procedure for precise diagnosis of various cancers, has come under considerably pressure in the last few years due to numerous new suppliers. FCI also had difficulties with a longer break in production of the cyclotron which was operated within the framework of a joint venture with the outpatient department of the University of Milan.

Karolin Riehle, press relations officer for Eckert & Ziegler AG, added: "In Germany and the directly neighbouring countries the market for radioactive contrast media continues to develop positively. Thanks to a network of our own cyclotrons, strengthened partly by supply co-operations, Eckert & Ziegler is one of the leading regional suppliers. The north Italian market on the other hand is outside the range of this network, so that it can only profit from these network synergies to a very limited extent."

The Eckert & Ziegler group, which predicted a turnover of around EUR 100 million for 2009 and employs around 520 employees, is one of the largest global suppliers of isotope technology components for radiotherapy and nuclear medicine.

The Board of Directors