UNION CITY, Calif., June 28, 2012 -- /PRNewswire/ -- Abaxis, Inc. (NasdaqGS: ABAX), a company manufacturing point of care instrumentation and consumables for the medical, veterinary, and research markets, announced today that a leading international medical supplies sourcing and support company has entered into a definitive agreement with Abaxis to purchase up to 300 CLIA waived Piccolo Xpress Chemistry Analyzers. The Piccolo Xpress instruments will be deployed by a leading international biotechnology company in the course of conducting a four-year worldwide drug clinical trial. Initial orders for the Piccolo Xpress instruments have been received, and Abaxis expects to ship the full complement of the 300 instruments by the end of the year.

Clint Severson, chairman and CEO of Abaxis, commented, "We have been working closely with leading clinical research organizations (CROs) and pharmaceutical companies to incorporate real-time testing into clinical trials and we are pleased to have received our first orders. An important consideration in drug clinical trials is the impact on liver and renal function in trial participants. The Piccolo Xpress is the ideal point-of-care instrument to monitor real time liver and renal function to insure patient safety and accurate analysis of the efficacy of the drug compound being studied. We are pleased to have entered into this important new market."

Matt Rapp, Abaxis Sales Director, said, "We believe the 'real-time' diagnostic test information provided by the Piccolo Xpress may help reduce the cost of drug studies, as well as reduce the time to market for new pharmaceuticals. In particular, we believe that real-time liver and renal function information during the trial could improve patient safety, comfort and convenience, while reducing the time and cost associated with shipping patient samples to off-site reference laboratories."

Rick Betts, Director of US Medical Marketing, added, "Abaxis has actively been exploring a variety of approaches to broaden our markets for the Piccolo Xpress system. This pharmaceutical clinical trial project is consistent with our strategy of promoting to a wider audience the clinical, operational and cost-reducing benefits of lab-accurate real-time information for disease diagnosis, medication monitoring and disease management. We believe there are great opportunities ahead in this market segment."

About AbaxisAbaxis develops, manufactures, and sells clinical chemistry analyzers for use in any human patient-care or veterinary setting to provide rapid blood constituent measurements.  The system consists of a compact, 5.1 kilogram (11.2 pounds), portable analyzer and a series of single-use disposable plastic discs, called reagent discs, that contain all the chemicals required to perform a wide variety of panel tests of up to 14 individual analytes for human patients and up to 13 tests for veterinary patients.  The system can be operated with minimal training and performs multiple routine tests on whole blood, serum or plasma samples.  The system provides test results in less than 12 minutes with the precision and accuracy equivalent to a clinical laboratory analyzer.  The Company also provides to the animal health and research market a line of hematology instruments for point-of-care complete blood counts (CBC) a specialty instrument to detect clotting disorders and to measure equine fibrinogen levels; a handheld instrument for the rapid assessment of certain critical care tests; and rapid point-of-care test for infectious diseases, such as Heartworm, Parvovirus, Lyme Disease and Giardia.  Also, the state-of-the-art commercial laboratory, Abaxis Veterinary Reference Laboratories (AVRL) provides routine laboratory testing as well as specialty testing for veterinarians nationwide. 

Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 This press release includes statements that constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (the "Reform Act"), including but not limited to statements related to Abaxis' cash position, financial resources and potential for future growth, market acceptance and penetration of new or planned product offerings, and future recurring revenues and results of operations.  Abaxis claims the protection of the safe-harbor for forward-looking statements contained in the Reform Act.  These forward-looking statements are often characterized by the terms "may," "believes," "projects," "expects," "anticipates," or words of similar import, and do not reflect historical facts.  Specific forward-looking statements contained in this press release or in Abaxis' conference call may be affected by risks and uncertainties, including, but not limited to, those related to losses or system failures with respect to Abaxis' facilities or manufacturing operations, fluctuations in quarterly operating results, dependence on sole suppliers, the market acceptance of Abaxis' products and services, the continuing development of its products, required United States Food and Drug Administration clearance and other government approvals, risks associated with manufacturing and distributing its products on a commercial scale free of defects, risks related to the introduction of new instruments manufactured by third parties, risks associated with competing in the human diagnostic market, risks related to the protection of Abaxis' intellectual property or claims of infringement of intellectual property asserted by third parties, risks related to condition of the United States economy and other risks detailed under "Risk Factors" in Abaxis' Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the fiscal quarter ended December 31, 2011 and Abaxis' other periodic reports filed from time to time with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission.  Forward-looking statements speak only as of the date the statements were made.  Abaxis does not undertake and specifically disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking statements.

SOURCE Abaxis, Inc.

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