Thar Instruments Completes the Acquisition of Berger SFC Business from METTLER TOLEDO

PITTSBURGH--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jul 2, 2007 - Thar Instruments, a global leader in the design, development and manufacture of Supercritical Fluid Chromatography (SFC) systems announced the acquisition of Berger SFC(R) division of METTLER TOLEDO. Berger SFC(R) is a pioneer in the development of SFC and a world leader in SFC Analysis and Purification. The combination of the top two supercritical fluid technology companies will enable the advancement of new technologies and applications, and expand capabilities in the support and service of its customers in pharmaceutical drug discovery and development globally.

"We are pleased that we have completed this acquisition," says Thar CEO, Dr. Lalit Chordia. "Berger SFC brings a global reputation and deep experience in the development of Supercritical Fluid Chromatography. We are excited about future advancement to broaden the scope of SFC technology as a result of this acquisition.

"We continue to believe that the SFC market represents an exciting opportunity. The combination of Berger SFC and Thar Instruments will result in a fully integrated SFC instrumentation company that will have the necessary critical mass to further penetrate the rapidly developing analysis and purification market, while providing competent support and service to customers around the world."

SFC is at least three to five times faster than HPLC. The high resolution of SFC makes it ideal for the separation and purification of difficult chemical samples, such as chiral enantiomers and natural products. SFC is generally known as normal phase chromatography, thereby offering a complimentary selectivity to HPLC but much greener because it reduces solvent usage by an average of 80%.

Sometimes referred to as "green chromatography," SFC is now used in every major pharmaceutical drug discovery lab to support the analysis and purification of potential new drug compounds. The use of SFC is expanding quickly, once viewed as a specialist technique only used in the US, UK and France, now chromatographers all over the world are using this fast, green technique. After the merger of the two technology and markets leaders, most of the world's SFC design and fabrication expertise will be under one roof including important patents on the instrumentation. For more information, visit www.thartech.com.

About Thar Instruments

Thar Instruments is a global leader in the design, development and manufacture of analytical and preparative SFC and SFE (extraction) systems. Thar's expertise has been applied to a wide variety of research in industries including petrochemicals, food, flavors, pharmaceuticals, nutraceuticals and fine chemicals. In recent years, Thar has developed applications for separating compounds that cannot be resolved using traditional techniques such as HPLC and GC. Apart from pharmaceutical compounds, other products analyzed by SFC include pesticides, food contaminants, engine fuels, polymers and peptides.

About METTLER TOLEDO

METTLER TOLEDO develops and manufactures precision instruments for weighing, analytical chemistry and materials characterization, chemical discovery and development, process analysis, metal detection and other end-of-line inspection requirements. With more than 10,000 employees, METTLER TOLEDO sells and supports its products and services world-wide to customers in the life science, food processing and packaging, retailing, specialty chemicals and cosmetics, transportation, logistics, metals and electronics industries. For more information visit www.mt.com.

Contact

Thar Instruments
Magali Curiel, +1 412-967-5665 x219

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