TECHNE Announces Judgement and Appeal

Minneapolis/January 7/—Techne Corporation (Nasdaq: TECH) announced today that the United States District Court in St. Paul, Minnesota has granted Amgen, Inc. summary judgment in the matter of the Epo supply dispute between the companies. Judgment was entered in the amount of $27,961,079 but the judgment is stayed for 30 days pending further order of the Court. Techne stated that if final judgment is entered against it, it will appeal to the United States Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Techne acquired Amgen’s biological reagents business in 1991 and had a continuing relationship with Amgen. The dispute arose in the summer of 2000 when Amgen invoiced Techne’s subsidiary, Research and Diagnostic Systems, Inc. (“R&D Systems”) for shipments of research grade Epo which had been made over a period of years. In June 2000, after not having invoiced Techne for almost nine years, Amgen sent Techne invoices totaling over $27 million. Thomas E. Oland, Techne’s Chairman and CEO, said: “We are surprised and very disappointed by the judgment of the court. We believe that Amgen’s failure to invoice over a period of years is evidence that it had no right to payment. We intend to appeal and seek to overturn the judgment and have a trial on the merits.”

Mr. Oland further stated: “Even if the judgment is upheld, it will have no adverse impact on the operations of the company or its financial condition. No sales of products will be affected. Techne has over $100 million in cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments."

Techne Corporation has two operating subsidiaries: Research and Diagnostic Systems, Inc. (R&D Systems) of Minneapolis, Minnesota and R&D Systems Europe, Ltd. (R&D Europe) of Abingdon, England. R&D Systems is a specialty manufacturer of biological products and R&D Europe is a distributor of biotechnology products.

Contact: Kathy Backes, 612-379-8854