HOPKINTON, Mass., Nov. 9 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Caliper Life Sciences, Inc. (Nasdaq: CALP), a leading provider of tools and services for drug discovery and life sciences research, today announced that its Caliper Discovery Alliances and Services (CDAS) unit has been awarded a new funding commitment for $1.8 million under its contract with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for the EPA's ToxCast screening program. This new task order increases the cumulative funding Caliper has been awarded under the ToxCast program to $5.6 million.

"We are pleased to receive this new order from the EPA, which we believe further validates Caliper's capabilities and performance in the area of predictive toxicology screening assays. This new task order confirms Caliper's future role in the EPA's ToxCast program, and supports our belief that our funded activities will continue to expand as work starts on the new set of compounds in the coming year. We believe this task order will help fuel strong double-digit growth by our CDAS business in 2010 to complement our continuing strong imaging and microfluidic growth outlook," commented Kevin Hrusovsky, President and CEO of Caliper.

Caliper has been working with EPA on its ToxCast program since 2007. The initial goal of the ToxCast program is to create a database of in vitro (laboratory) assay data on a broad set of compounds for which in vivo (animal) safety data already exists. The long term goal of ToxCast is to identify in vitro assays that can predict toxicity in humans and animals and then employ those predictive tests to supplement or replace existing animal-based tests, thus reducing the cost and improving the speed of regulatory approval of new environmental chemicals.

"This most recent task order represents Caliper's advancement into Phase II of testing under the EPA's ToxCast program, which is expected to cover the screening of approximately 700 environmental compounds, in contrast to Phase I which covered approximately 320 compounds. The task order we just received involves screening this new compound set against a panel of 81 G-Protein Coupled Receptor (GPCR) assays, which is a subset of Caliper's current ToxCast assay panel of 275 assays in total. The EPA expanded Caliper's original Phase I ToxCast panel of 235 assays in the third quarter with the addition of 40 new kinase and other enzyme assays. All of these new assays are performed on Caliper's LabChip EZ Reader® instrument, which reflects the high quality of data obtained with our LabChip systems," commented David Manyak, Executive Vice President, Drug Discovery Services.

About Caliper Life Sciences

Caliper Life Sciences is a premier provider of cutting-edge technologies enabling researchers in the life sciences industry to create life-saving and enhancing medicines and diagnostic tests more quickly and efficiently. Caliper is aggressively innovating new technology to bridge the gap between in vitro assays and in vivo results, enabling the translation of those results into cures for human disease. Caliper's portfolio of offerings includes state-of-the-art microfluidics, lab automation and liquid handling, optical imaging technologies, and discovery and development outsourcing solutions. For more information please visit www.caliperLS.com.

The statements in this press release regarding future events, including statements regarding Caliper's expectations regarding its future role in the EPA's ToxCast program, Caliper's belief that its funded activities under the ToxCast program will continue to expand, Caliper's belief that the recently received task order from the EPA will produce strong double-digit growth in its CDAS business unit in 2010, and Caliper's belief that it will continue to experience strong growth from its imaging and microfluidic products, are "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. These statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contemplated by the forward-looking statements as a result of a number of factors, including that the EPA may stop or curtail funding under its ToxCast screening program, Caliper may experience unexpected delays in its receipt of compounds from the EPA for testing under the ToxCast program, and Caliper's expectations regarding demand for its products and services may not materialize if capital spending by Caliper's customers declines, if competitors introduce new competitive products, or if Caliper is unable to convince potential customers regarding the superior performance of its drug discovery and imaging systems and other products. Further information on risks faced by Caliper are detailed under the caption "Risks Related To Our Business" in Caliper's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2008. Our filings are available on a web site maintained by the Securities and Exchange Commission at http://www.sec.gov. Caliper does not undertake any obligation to update forward-looking or other statements in this release or the conference call.

NOTE: Caliper, LabChip, and EZ Reader are registered trademarks of Caliper Life Sciences, Inc. ToxCast is a trademark of the Environmental Protection Agency.

SOURCE Caliper Life Sciences, Inc.