Zurich, Switzerland, December 15th 2006 – Tecan, a leading provider of laboratory products and solutions for the biopharmaceutical research, diagnostics and forensics industries, today announced the initiation of a share buy-back program.

At present Tecan is holding 461,730 of it’s own shares, representing 3.9% of the total shares outstanding. Within two years, Tecan is planning to repurchase shares amounting to at most 6.1% of the currently outstanding shares, resulting in the company’s holding of 10% of its own shares.

The positive results achieved to date during 2006 have resulted in a significant cash-flow. Through the share buy-back program, Tecan aims to utilize excess cash efficiently and actively manage the balance sheet of the group. In addition, Tecan plans on the targeted utilization of these shares for potential future external growth opportunities. The cancellation of these shares, and the concurrent reduction in outstanding shares, is not planned.

Tecan will acquire the shares over the program period on the open market. The specifics of the buy-back program will be published in selected financial publications as well as on Tecan’s website at www.tecan.com in due course.

The initiation of the buy-back program is contingent on approval by the takeover commission.

About Tecan

Tecan (www.tecan.com) is a leading player in the life sciences supply industry. The company specializes in the development, production and distribution of automation solutions which facilitate the researching of active pharmaceutical compounds, as well as diagnostics, pharmaceutical research and forensics for clients in the life sciences sector. Through its REMP subsidiary (www.remp.com), Tecan is the leading supplier of large-scale automated storage and retrieval systems. Tecan clients are pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, university research departments and diagnostic laboratories. Founded in Switzerland in 1980, the company has manufacturing, research and development sites in both North America and Europe and maintains a sales and service network in 52 countries. In 2005, Tecan achieved sales of CHF 344.9 million (USD 275.9 million; EUR 222.5 million). Registered shares of Tecan Group are traded on the SWX Swiss Exchange (TK: TECN/Reuters: TECZn.S/Valor: 1210019).

For further information please contact:

Rudolf Eugster
Chief Financial Officer

Christopher Hanan
Senior Vice President
Business Development &
Corporate Communications

T +41 44 922 84 30
F +41 44 922 88 89
investor@tecan.com
www.tecan.com