• The 2009 guidance for the underlying continued and discontinued businesses is

  unchanged 
• Exiqon Life Sciences is expected to be cash flow positive in
2010
• Long term financial goal of reaching profitability by 2011 with
current
  capital is maintained.

Exiqon A/S (NASDAQ OMX Copenhagen: “EXQ”)
today announced that it has started a
process of  divesting Oncotech, Inc.,
its certified CLIA laboratory operation
in Tustin, California. As a result,
Exiqon will recognize a non-cash loss on
divestment and impairment of goodwill
of approximately DKK 205 million and
revises its full-year 2009 guidance
accordingly. Exiqon's diagnostic ambitions
and long-term financial objective
of reaching profitability by 2011 with
current capital are unchanged. 

The
objective of the acquisition of Oncotech, Inc., which was announced
in
November 2007, was to accelerate the establishing of Exiqon's
diagnostic
business and to set up a commercial platform for the launch of
Exiqon's
miRNA-based diagnostic products. Since the acquisition, Exiqon has
successfully
strengthened its product portfolio for in vitro diagnostics by
adding new
molecular tests, including KRAS and BRAF, and other tools to help
physicians
improve cancer treatment selection. 

Exiqon has now decided to
consolidate its ongoing development of diagnostic
products based on miRNA at
the company's facilities in Denmark in order to gain
operational and
infrastructural efficiencies and to free up human and financial
resources.


“This decision will help us focus on our core competencies in the area of
miRNA
and drive operational synergies between our two business areas,
Diagnostics and
Life Sciences”, said Lars Kongsbak, President and CEO.”


Exiqon will continue developing its programs for colon cancer
recurrence,
identification of cancer of unknown primary and early detection of
colon cancer
in serum. Exiqon has secured in excess of DKK 40 million in
grants for its
pipeline of diagnostic products. 

“Within the Life Science
area, we are seeing a robust uptake of the recently
introduced product for
sensitive and quantitative analysis of miRNA expression,
for example in blood
samples. By consolidating operations, we can free up the
necessary financial
resources for a continued focus on our diagnostic product
development
efforts,” said Lars Kongsbak. 

As a consequence of the decision to divest
Oncotech, Inc., Exiqon will seek
partners to co-develop and commercialize its
miRNA-based diagnostic products. 

Revised guidance for 2009:

Following
the decision to divest Oncotech, Inc., the related assets and
liabilities will
be classified as held for sale and will therefore be presented
as a
discontinued operation in the annual report 2009 unless divested
before
yearend. Similarly the result of the activities and the loss on
divestment will
be shown as a single amount in the income statement. 

The
Board of Directors recognizes time as an important factor in the divestment
of
Oncotech, Inc., and has therefore cautiously estimated the fair value
of
Oncotech, Inc., less sales related costs of approximately DKK 7 million, to
be
DKK 0.00, which will result in a non-cash loss on divestment of
approximately
DKK 135 million in the fourth quarter of 2009. The estimated
fair value less
costs to sell and the resulting loss on divestment is based on
the assumption
that no specific estimates of a sales price can be made under
the current
market conditions. 

Impaired goodwill in the amount of DKK 70
million related to the continued
operations will be recognized as non-cash
loss. 

The guidance for the underlying continued and discontinued businesses
are
unchanged. 

We anticipate the guidance after reflecting the impact of
the decision to
divest Oncotech, Inc. including the estimated loss on
divestment and impairment
of goodwill on continued operations to be as
follows: 
 
                                               BEFORE	           
NEW
                                             USD/DKK 5.25       USD/DKK
5.25 
Exiqon Group revenue                        DKK 130 mill        DKK  80
mill 
Estimated non-cash impairment charge                            DKK (70
mill) 
Etimated non-cash loss on divestment                            DKK(135
mill) 
Net loss inclusive discontinued operation   DKK(130 mill)       DKK(335
mill) 

Long-term objectives unchanged:

The annualized impact of the
divestment is estimated to result in savings of
approximately DKK 60 million
compared to 2009, including non-cash items of
approximately DKK 12 million in
2010. 

Following a successful restructuring of Exiqon Life Sciences in the
third
quarter 2009, Exiqon Life Sciences is expected to be cash flow positive
in
2010. 

Exiqon therefore maintains its long term financial goal of
reaching
profitability by 2011 with current capital. 

Additional
information:
Lars Kongsbak, CEO, phone +45 4566 0888 (cell: +45 4090
2101)	
Hans Henrik Chrois Christensen, CFO, phone +45 4566 0888 (cell: +45
4090 2131)

Read the full announcement in the attached PDF or
at
www.exiqon.com/investor/portal.