Re Agreement

RNS Number:6027R
Celsis International PLC
22 September 2005

        Celsis Signs Exclusive Licensing Agreement with BioVentures Inc.

        Next generation of products offer potential to develop real-time
                            microbiological testing

22 September 2005: Celsis International plc, the rapid microbial detection and
analytical services company, announces that it has signed an exclusive licensing
agreement with BioVentures Inc. to develop next generation products for rapid
microbial and virus detection.  The objective of such products is to enable the
real-time and accurate detection of contamination for customers in the
pharmaceutical, biotechnology, personal care and beverage industries, thus
saving costs and time and preventing the need for product recalls.

Screening for contamination has become an essential part of the manufacturing
process as customers increasingly recognise the vital importance of ensuring
product quality and consumer safety.  Celsis currently offers manufacturers with
rapid testing solutions, which provide results in 18 - 24 hours compared to the
multiple days associated with traditional methods (including petri dishes).  The
products developed through this new agreement will benefit customers by
significantly reducing the time to results to a few hours or less, while
providing more information than permitted by current testing methodologies.
Better and faster information will provide significant economic benefits to
customers by reducing manufacturing cycle times and working capital
requirements.  Through deploying Celsis' detection technology, customers are
also able to manage product quality and avoid costly product failures and
recalls.

This new licensing agreement covers BioVentures' patented and patent pending
high density microarray technology which offers revolutionary improvements to
the consistency, reproducibility and cost effectiveness of microarrays.
Additionally, the BioVenture microarray offers improved design flexibility
allowing for increased sensitivity and ease of interpretation.  The joint
development plan will also encompass nucleic acid testing and other rapid
detection technologies.

The industrial microbiology market is currently valued at about $3bn and is
expected to grow to $4.5bn by 2008.  Rapid testing methods are a key driver of
market growth.

Jay LeCoque, Chief Executive Officer of Celsis, commented:

"With an increasing number of high profile and highly damaging product
contamination stories, industry is looking for cost-effective and rapid
microbiological testing products.  Celsis is already at the forefront of such
technology but we believe that this partnership with BioVentures will enable us
to very substantially increase the speed and accuracy of our detection services.
In addition to the clear benefits for consumer safety, these next generation
products have the potential to add significant time and cost savings to our
customers.  Our objective is for these products to become a 'must have' across
the manufacturing industry, maintaining and expanding Celsis' competitive
advantage in the field on microbial testing."

Elliott Dawson, President of BioVentures Inc., said:

"We are confident that our technological strengths and Celsis' market leadership
and capabilities in microbial detection will prove to be a successful
combination.  We are pleased to have the depth of understanding and market
leadership that our partner, Celsis, brings to this relationship and eagerly
anticipate entering into this attractive growth market with our technology.  We
therefore look forward to working with Celsis on this licensing and joint
development programme."

Enquiries:

Celsis International plc                                    Tel: [phone]
Jay LeCoque, Chief Executive Officer
Jenny Parsons, Corporate Communications


Financial Dynamics                                          Tel: [phone]
David Yates/Ben Atwell

Notes to editors

Celsis International plc

Celsis International plc is a rapid microbial detection and analytical services
company operating through two divisions, the Product Group and the Laboratory
Group.

Using its proprietary enzyme technology, the Product Group is the world leader
in the provision of diagnostic systems for the rapid detection of microbial
contamination.  It works in close collaboration with many of the world's leading
pharmaceutical, personal care and beverage companies, ensuring the safety and
quality of products bound for consumers.  The Laboratory Group provides
outsourced analytical testing services to pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical
companies to ensure the quality, stability and chemical composition of their
products.

In addition to ensuring product quality and safety for consumers, both divisions
have the capacity to deliver substantial cost savings to Celsis' customers.  By
reducing the time it takes to evaluate raw and in-process materials and release
finished goods to the market place, Celsis' products facilitate increased
manufacturing productivity and improved supply chain management.

Celsis International plc is listed on the London Stock Exchange (CEL.L).
Further information can be found on the Company's website at www.celsis.com.

BioVentures Inc

BioVentures is a privately held company based outside of Nashville, USA.
BioVentures develops and provides products that are used in primary research and
drug discovery including customers such as the National Institutes of Health,
the Center for Disease Control, leading academic institutions and most of the
major instrument providers to the field.  BioVentures products improve the
quality and consistency of genomic based testing and is the market leader in the
high quality manufacturing of fluorescent calibration markers for geneomic and
forensic analysis.  BioVentures' production facilities and procedures are vendor
inspected for compliance with ISO and GMP.  BioVentures creates products to meet
customer requirements with exacting standards, ensuring solutions that meet cost
objectives as well as critical performance targets.

For further information about BioVentures please go to www.bioventures.com


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