[CAMBREX LOGO]

News Release

Date:    October 20, 2004
Contact: Anne-Marie Hess
         Director, Investor Relations & Corporate Communications
Phone:   201.804.3062
Email:   annemarie.hess@cambrex.com
Release: Immediate

CAMBREX ACQUIRES INNOVATIVE RAPID MICROBIAL DETECTION COMPANY

                   Takes Microbial Testing from Days to Hours

      East Rutherford, NJ - October 20, 2004 - Cambrex (NYSE: CBM) announces
that its wholly-owned subsidiary, Cambrex France SARL, has acquired Genolife SA
for approximately $6.0 million in cash. Genolife, located in Saint Beauzire,
France, is an innovative biotechnology company specializing in rapid microbial
detection testing for the pharmaceutical, agriculture, food, and cosmetic
industries.

      "Cambrex's endotoxin and mycoplasma detection product lines will be
enhanced by the addition of rapid microbial detection technologies provided by
the Genolife acquisition and the recently announced Epoch Biosciences license,"
commented Dave Eansor, President Bioproducts. "The new microbial detection
products that we develop will prove to be some of the fastest, most accurate,
and highly sensitive available on the market."

      The Genolife technology measures total viable organisms (TVO) in less than
5 hours rather than days or weeks required for other methods of detection.
Faster results will reduce costs by quickly confirming product specifications,
identifying production problems or contaminated product, and reducing product
hold times and product returns. Cambrex will also use the technology internally
for in-process testing of its own media, biologics and cell therapy production
to cut product costs and cycle times.

      Cambrex plans to leverage its existing endotoxin detection sales force for
the introduction of the products and services using the Genolife and Epoch
technologies. Product and service introductions are expected as early as 2005.
The Company estimates the acquisition to be EPS neutral in 2005 and accretive
thereafter.

Cambrex Corporation | One Meadowlands Plaza | East Rutherford, NJ 07073
Phone 201-804-3000 | Fax 201-804-3062 | www.cambrex.com



      Genolife, founded in 1996 by Drs. Franck Chaubron and Bruno Venuat, has
provided products and services for bacterial, yeast and fungal identification
and Genetically Modified Organism (GMO) detection services. Drs. Chaubron and
Venuat will remain employees of Genolife to ensure that the value of the
intellectual property is maximized.

ABOUT MICROBIAL DETECTION

      Microbial detection tests are used worldwide in the pharmaceutical, food,
beverage and personal care industries. Annually, these industries are estimated
to spend over $2 billion and run145 million tests worldwide to monitor their
products for the presence of potentially lethal pathogens such as E. coli,
Listeria, and salmonella bacteria. Classical microbiological methods (e.g.
culture plates) account for approximately 70% of all microbial detection tests
and require days to perform.

ABOUT CAMBREX

      Cambrex is a global, diversified life science company dedicated to
providing high quality products and services to accelerate discovery,
development, and manufacturing of human therapeutics. Product innovations for
pathogen testing have included the PyroSense(TM) on-line endotoxin detection
system and MycoAlert(TM), a rapid and highly sensitive test for the presence of
mycoplasma. The Company employs approximately 1900 people worldwide. For more
information, go to www.cambrex.com.

FORWARD LOOKING STATEMENTS

      This news release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning
of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and Rule 3B-6 under The
Exchange Act, including, without limitation, statements regarding expected
performance, especially expectations with respect to sales, research and
development expenditures, earnings per share, capital expenditures,
acquisitions, divestitures, collaborations, or other expansion opportunities.
These statements may be identified by the fact that words such as "expects",
"anticipates", "intends", "estimates", "believes" or similar expressions are
used in connection with any discussion of future financial and operating
performance. The forward-looking statements contained herein are based on
current plans and expectations and involve risks and uncertainties that could
cause actual outcomes and results to differ materially from current expectations
including but not limited to, global economic trends, pharmaceutical outsourcing
trends, competitive pricing or product developments, government legislation
and/or regulations (particularly environmental issues), tax rate, technology,
manufacturing and legal issues, unfavorable results shipments, changes in
foreign exchange rates, performance of minority investments, un-collectable
receivables, loss on disposition of assets, cancellation or delays in renewal of
contracts, and lack of suitable raw materials or packaging materials. For
further details and a discussion of these and other risks and uncertainties,
investors are cautioned to review the Cambrex Annual Report on Form 10-K,
including the Forward-Looking Statement section therein, and other filings with
the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Company undertakes no obligation to
publicly update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new
information, future events or otherwise.

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