Harvard Bioscience, Inc. : Acquires AHN

HOLLISTON, Mass., Feb. 7, 2012 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Harvard Bioscience, Inc. (Nasdaq:HBIO), a global developer, manufacturer, and marketer of a broad range of tools to advance life science research and regenerative medicine, today announced that it has acquired the business of AHN Biotechnologie GmbH through its wholly owned Biochrom Ltd. subsidiary.

AHN is a privately held manufacturer of plastic consumable laboratory products including pipette tips. This acquisition is complementary to the current Biochrom product line of molecular biology instruments.

David Green, President of Harvard Bioscience, commented, "The acquisition of AHN Biotechnologie gives us a product line that is complimentary to the current Biochrom product line and also gives us a base of business in Germany for our entire molecular biology business. AHN will add approximately $2.5m in annual revenue and we expect this acquisition to be accretive to 2012 earnings per share."

Harvard Bioscience ("HBIO") is a global developer, manufacturer and marketer of a broad range of specialized products, primarily apparatus and scientific instruments, used to advance life science research and regenerative medicine. HBIO sells products to thousands of researchers in over 100 countries primarily through our 850 page catalog (and various other specialty catalogs), our website, through distributors, including GE Healthcare, Thermo Fisher Scientific and VWR, and via our field sales organization. HBIO has sales and manufacturing operations in the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, Sweden and Spain with additional facilities in France and Canada. For more information, please visit www.harvardbioscience.com.

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This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws. You can identify these statements by our use of such words as "will," "guidance," "objectives," "optimistic," "potential," "future," "expect," "plans," "estimates," "continue," "drive," "strategy," "crucial," "potential," "potentially," "growth," "long-term," "projects," "projected," "produce," "intends," "believes," "goals," "sees," "seek," "develop," "possible," "new," "enabling," "emerging," "opportunity," "pursue" and similar expressions that do not relate to historical matters. Forward-looking statements in this press release may include, but are not limited to, statements or inferences about the Company's or management's beliefs or expectations,
including with respect to the impact of the Company's acquisition of AHN and the future performance of the acquired
business, the field of regenerative medicine, opportunities or potential opportunities in the field of regenerative medicine, the Company's business strategy, the positioning of the Company for growth, the market demand and opportunity for the Company's current products or products it is developing or intends to develop, and the Company's plans, objectives and intentions that are not historical facts.
These statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the Company's actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the forward-looking statements. Factors that may cause the Company's actual results to differ materially from
those in the forward-looking statements include the Company's inability to integrate the business acquired from AHN, the failure of the business acquired from AHN to perform in accordance with management's beliefs or expectations, the existence and size of opportunities in the neuroscience research market, the Company's failure to successfully expand its product offerings, introduce new products or commercialize new technologies, including in the field of regenerative medicine, decreased demand for the Company's products, including products in the field of regenerative medicine, due to changes in our customers' needs, our ability to obtain regulatory approvals, including FDA approval, for our products, including any products in the field of regenerative medicine, the current size or anticipated size of the regenerative medicine market, the existence and size of opportunities in the regenerative medicine market, our financial position, general economic outlook or other circumstances, overall economic trends, our ability to manage our growth, competition from our competitors, technological changes resulting in our products becoming obsolete, our ability to protect our intellectual property and operate without infringing on others' intellectual property, potential costs of any lawsuits to protect or enforce our intellectual property, research funding levels from endowments at our university customers, plus factors described under the heading "Item 1A. Risk Factors" in the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2010 or described in the Company's other public filings. The Company's results may also be affected by factors of which the Company is not currently aware. The Company may not update these forward-looking statements, even though its situation may change in the future, unless it has obligations under the federal securities laws to update and disclose material developments related to previously disclosed information.

For investor inquiries, please call (508) 893-8066. Press releases may be found on our web site http://www.harvardbioscience.com.

CONTACT: Harvard Bioscience, Inc.

David Green, President dgreen@harvardbioscience.com Chane Graziano, CEO cgraziano@harvardbioscience.com Tom McNaughton, CFO

tmcnaughton@harvardbioscience.com

508 893 8999

Fax: 508 429 8478