GE HEALTHCARE TO COMPLETE THE ACQUISITION OF BIACORE

GE Healthcare today announced that pursuant to its public offer it has received acceptances equivalent to approximately 98% of the total number of shares outstanding in Biacore. All of the conditions to the offer have been fulfilled and GE Healthcare is proceeding with the closing of the offer.

Chalfont St. Giles, United Kingdom and Uppsala, Sweden - GE Healthcare, acting through GE Medical Holding AB (“GE Healthcare”), announced that it is proceeding with its public offer for Biacore International AB (publ) (“Biacore”) (the “Offer”). As at the close of the acceptance period under the Offer on 10 August 2006, GE Healthcare had received acceptances of its Offer from shareholders representing 9,567,184 shares. In addition, GE Healthcare has obtained a contractual right to acquire in excess of 700,000 Biacore warrants, which in combination with the acceptances received from shareholders, provides GE Healthcare with control in excess of 98 per cent of the shares in Biacore on a fully diluted basis. Since the conditions of the Offer are fulfilled, GE Healthcare is completing the Offer and starting settlement on 15 August 2006. Peter Ehrenheim, GE Healthcare Life Sciences CEO, commented: "We are very pleased that shareholders supported our acquisition of Biacore. We are truly excited by the prospects for Biacore as part of GE Healthcare’s Life Sciences business and look forward to developing joint offerings that will create added value for our customers in biomedical and drug discovery research.” Mechanics of the Offer Settlement in respect of valid acceptances of the Offer received by 10 August 2006 will take place on 15 August 2006. The acquisition will be effective on 15 August 2006 and subsequently Biacore will become a subsidiary of GE Healthcare. Remaining shares: GE Healthcare has decided to extend the acceptance period under the Offer until 24 August 2006, 5:00 p.m. (CET), so as to allow time for remaining shareholders in Biacore who wish to accept the Offer to do so. The terms of the Offer remain as previously announced. Settlement of valid acceptances received during the extension of the Offer period is expected to take place by 29 August 2006. ‘Squeeze-out’: GE Healthcare intends to initiate a compulsory acquisition process under the Swedish Companies Act in order to acquire those shares in Biacore that it does not own following completion of the Offer. About Biacore Biacore is a leading provider of systems for protein interaction analysis, an area of increasing importance for scientists in the biomedical research, biomarker discovery, and drug discovery and development markets. The Company has the recognized platform in surface plasmon resonance (SPR), a key enabling technology in proteomics that gives scientists critical insights into protein functionality, the role of proteins in normal and diseased states, and the influence of potential drug candidates. Biacore’s systems are used in key areas, such as antibody characterization, biomarker discovery, small molecule characterization, biopharmaceutical development and production, where GE has a strong presence. About GE Healthcare GE Healthcare, a unit of General Electric Company (NYSE: GE), provides transformational medical technologies and services that are shaping a new age of patient care. GE Healthcare’s expertise in medical imaging and information technologies, medical diagnostics, patient monitoring systems, performance improvement, life sciences, drug discovery, and biopharmaceutical manufacturing technologies is helping clinicians around the world re-imagine new ways to predict, diagnose, inform and treat disease, so their patients can live their lives to the fullest.