Neogen Acquires Assets of Rivard I...( LANSING Mich. Dec. 4 /- Neogen Co...)

LANSING, Mich., Dec. 4 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Neogen Corporation (Nasdaq: NEOG) announced today that it has acquired the assets of Rivard Instruments, Inc., of Winnipeg, Canada. Rivard Instruments and Neogen's subsidiary, Ideal Instruments, Inc., are both manufacturers of detectable veterinary hypodermic needles.

The acquisition settles lengthy litigation between the two companies regarding numerous patents owned by each. The patent battles were centered on lawsuits filed by Ideal Instruments in federal courts in Iowa charging Rivard Instruments with patent infringement. A similar lawsuit in Canada was also settled as a part of this acquisition agreement.

Ideal Instruments and Rivard Instruments collectively own patents protecting the manufacturing and marketing of detectable veterinary hypodermic needles specially designed to reduce breakage during animal injections. The major advantage of the needles is that in the event a needle is broken with the cannula remaining in an animal muscle, it would be detected by metal detectors used in meat processing plants. The typical veterinary hypodermic needle is generally not detected. These detectable needles have been widely adopted by producers throughout the world, and several countries have mandated use of these needles, particularly in pork production. The two companies own patents or have patents pending in over 30 countries.

Details of the transaction were not disclosed.

Neogen Corporation develops and markets products dedicated to food and animal safety. The company's Food Safety Division markets dehydrated culture media, and diagnostic test kits to detect foodborne bacteria, natural toxins, genetic modifications, food allergens, drug res
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