SIRS-Lab Successfully Raises EURO 10M New Equity Capital to Introduce Its First Sepsis Diagnostic Tests to the Market

SIRS-Lab, the innovation leader in molecular diagnostics for life
threatening infections announced today that it has successfully raised
EURO 10 million new equity capital led by Affentranger Associates
alongside with bm-t Beteiligungsmanagement Thuringen and Swiss
institutional investors. The company will use the funds to bring new
molecular diagnostics to the market to enable fast identification and
simple monitoring of sepsis often a deadly disease.

As of today sepsis - also called blood poisoning - is the second
most frequent cause of death in hospitals after cardio-vascular
diseases. With about two million cases worldwide out of which
approximately 50% die, sepsis remains one of the greatest and least
publicly recognized challenges of the clinical medicine. SIRS-Lab is
one of the pioneers that recognized the importance to identify very
early the occurrence of sepsis as well as to monitor the evolution of
the disease. The objective of the company is to dramatically improve
the survival chances of the patients by providing to the clinicians
with simple and non invasive tests to initiate efficacious therapeutic
treatments rapidly.

"Our financial investment and hands-on involvement in SIRS-Lab
reflect our conviction in the strong added value of the tests
developed by the company" said Nicolas Fulpius, Partner at
Affentranger Associates "The fast democratization of the molecular
diagnostic technologies combined with a high unmet medical need in
sepsis, positions SIRS-Lab ideally to become one of the leading
players in the multi-billion market of diagnostics for severe
infections."

SIRS-Lab has developed its highly innovative diagnostic programs
in cooperation with the University Hospital Jena. Together, they have
build up over years a worldwide unique bio-bank with clinical samples
from hundreds of sepsis patients. Recently, SIRS-Lab has announced to
have identified for the first time a robust and specific gene
expression signature for sepsis that will serve as basis for one
family of new diagnostic products. In addition, the company will
leverage its unique and protected Pureprove(R) technology to bring
fast and highly sensitive pathogen tests to the market.

"With substantial new capital, SIRS-Lab is now ready to bring its
first set of sepsis tests to the market very shortly" said Stefan
Russwurm, CEO of SIRS-Lab "The combination of the scientific expertise
of SIRS-Lab with the experience of Affentranger Associates in the
development of high-growth companies will enable SIRS-Lab to reach the
next level in terms of value creation."

As result of this investment, Affentranger Associates and
Beteiligungsmanagement Thuringen will be joining the Board of the
Company.

About SIRS-Lab GmbH

Located in Jena (Germany), SIRS-Lab is a privately held diagnostic
company developing unique and innovative products to identify and
monitor life-threatening infections, one of the major causes of death
in hospitals across the world. SIRS-Lab's vision is to support
clinicians in their bedside decisions by providing them with fast and
reliable high-performance point of care systems and thus, to improve
therapeutic impact and reduce the mortality rate of patients.

Founded in 2000 by S. Russwurm, K. Reinhart, E. Straube and H.-P.
Saluz, SIRS-Lab employs today 25 people. The company has raised in the
past EURO 15M in form of private investments and public grants.
SIRS-Lab already commercializes Looxster(R), a sample preparation that
isolates bacterial DNA from human DNA as well as gene-expression
services and products (LabArraytor(R)).

About Affentranger Associates SA

Incorporated in 2002, Affentranger Associates is a Switzerland
based business platform focused on the theme of value creation and
active management. As principal investor, the company has the ambition
to achieve sustainable long-term returns by investing a combination of
management and capital in high-growth potential companies.
Affentranger Associates has offices in Geneva and Zurich.

About bm-t Beteiligungsmanagement Thuringen

The bm-t, a daughter company of the Thuringer Aufbaubank, acts as
the management company of four Thuringen dedicated investment funds,
the TI - Thuringer Innovationsfonds, VCT - Venture Capital Thuringen,
TIB - Thuringer Industriebeteiligungs and the PET - Private Equity
Thuringen. As of today, the bm-t manages a portofolio of more than 40
companies located in Thuringen (Germany) for a total of more than EURO
130M under management.