The Fund for Public Interest

Founded in 1981, Techne Corporation is a holding company that operates two wholly owned subsidiaries, Research & Diagnostics Systems and Research & Diagnostics Systems Europe. R&D Systems, located in Minneapolis, is a specialty manufacturer of biological products. The company specializes in hematology and biotechnology applications. It develops hematology controls that monitor the accuracy of blood-analysis instrumentation in hospitals and clinical laboratories. R&D Systems also produces purified proteins, antibodies and assay kits for the research and diagnostic markets. The company s subsidiaries include Fortron Bioscience and BiosPacific. R&D Systems Europe sells and distributes biotechnology products internationally. Techne Corporation maintains its headquarters in Minneapolis, and is publicly traded on NASDAQ under the ticker symbol TECH.

R & D Systems is a wholly owned subsidiary of TECHNE Corporation that was founded in 1976 in Minneapolis. The company manufactures reagents for the biotechnology research market and produces controls and calibrators for hematology analyzers. Its products include proteins, antibodies, flow cytometry kits, primer pairs and linearity materials. R & D Systems also features analytical testing and custom assay development services. Through BiosPacific, the company provides products for the development of immunoassay kits. It has sales subsidiaries in the United Kingdom, Germany, France and China. The company employs more than 600 employees worldwide.