Rafer SL invests in Spanish NGS leader Era7 Bioinformatics to accelerate Era7's International expansion plan

GRANADA AND ZARAGOZA, SPAIN - Aug 29, 2014 - Era7 Bioinformatics and Comercial Rafer announced today that Rafer has made a strategic investment in Era7 Bioinformatics to accelerate the International expansion of Era7 Bioinformatics, the bacterial genomics company. This expansion will target specially the US market.

Next Generation Sequencing is revolutionizing the way in which researchers investigate bacteria. Bacterial genomics and metagenomics are powerful tools for research in fields as important as antibiotic resistance, evolution of pathogens or outbreak management. Bacterial genomics and metagenomics are also very useful for Biofuel research and many industrial and agrifood projects.

"Having Comercial Rafer, a leader in the distribution of advanced technologies focused on Biomedicine, ensures the success of our International Expansion Plan”, declared Eduardo Pareja, CEO of Era7. Jesus Ramos, Manager of Comercial Rafer, adds “Our entry into Era7 ́s capital means a big step in our strategic plan to increase Rafer's presence in the NGS market since this is a durable alliance with a leader in this field such as Era7". Pareja also remarked: "One of the first results of this Alliance is a Distribution Agreement for the Era7 ́s services through Rafer. This will allow Era7 to considerably increase its customer’s portfolio in Spain and Portugal”.

About Era7 Bioinformatics

Era7 Bioinformatics (www.era7bioinformatics.com) is a leading company in Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) and Bioinformatics for Bacterial genomics and metagenomics. Era7 is based in Spain and has a subsidiary in Cambridge MA from 2012. The Era7 ́s business model is based in helping the customers along the complete NGS project, from project design and sequencing to expert bioinformatics analyses, consultancy and tailored software. This is possible due to a strong Research activity, the use of Cloud Computing, and in the advantages of developing software under Open Source model.

About Comercial Rafer

Comercial Rafer(www.rafer.es) is a leader company in the commercialization of reagents and instruments for laboratories. Rafer has different business branches such as clinical, industrial and research and development. Its presence throughout the Iberian Peninsula with 9 offices and a highly qualified staff are the cause for Commercial Rafer to be chosen by internationally prestigious companies for the selling of their products in the Iberian Peninsula.

Contact:

• info@era7.com

• rafer@rafer.es