Roche Diagnostics and Vanderbilt University Announce Winners of e-Health Strategy Competition

Harvard Business School Team Earns Grand Prize of $25,000

Indianapolis, Ind. - March 4, 2003 - Imagine the future of e-Healthcare where patients are prescribed medications that are designed specifically for their own unique set of conditions. That forward-thinking concept, referred to as "personalized medicine," captured the attention of judges in the fourth annual Vanderbilt MBA eStrategy Contest, sponsored by Roche Diagnostics and Vanderbilt University.

Roche Diagnostics' e-Business unit, located in Indianapolis, Ind., and the Owen Graduate School of Management at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn., are pleased to announce the winners of this year's competition of visionary thinking.

Top honors were awarded to the team whose e-business acumen is on par with their creative naming of their team. Named after a fictitious company from the popular situation comedy, "Seinfeld," the team "Vandelay Industries" from the Harvard Business School, earned top honors. Participating students Philip Borden, John Gilmartin, and Catherine Turco presented their personalized medicine strategy, which would provide customized therapeutics to match a particular patient's or patient population's needs. The new paradigm of diagnostic treatments would combine the areas of prevention, monitoring, and treatment of a disease with the traditional role of diagnostics to provide a comprehensive way to manage disease.

The Harvard Business School team was presented a check for $25,000 during the final round of competition that took place in Nashville, Tenn., on February 15, 2003.

"The Harvard Business School team provided an exceptional case that our judges found to be very feasible in today's rapidly changing world of e-Health." said Frank Cheng, Vice President, Roche Diagnostics e-Business unit. "Their innovation and strategy were outlined in a very clear and concise business case that easily help mold the future of innovative health information."

The runner-up prize of $5000 was presented to "NPV" from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania: Michael Basta, Jennifer Bergheiser, and Jeanette Smith presenting.

"Vandelay Industries' and NPV's solutions were especially outstanding," said Kevin Dumont, 2003 eStrategy Contest Director, "but all presentations were very strong. From those of us at Owen who worked to make this contest a success, we want to acknowledge not only all the great entries but also the excellent panel of judges and of course our sponsors, who have been consistently supportive since the start, when Roche provided such a compelling case."


The other four teams of finalists include:

• The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Sloan School of Management - "TAQ": David Kuo, Robert Bruch, Shion Hung, and Fred Shen presenting.

• Fuqua School of Business at Duke University - "Snoop Rochy Roche": Nick Felten, Buhdy Bok, Dave Firdaus, and Andrew Wong presenting.

• Robert H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland - "Silicon Remedies": Jayaraman Anantharaman, Jeremy Gold, Nitin Kapoor, Rajeev Devgan, and Sudarshan Ranganath presenting.

• Rutgers Business School - "Strategic E-Health Solutions": Ian Karp, Gregg Ruppersberger, and Terence Davidson presenting.

"We at Owen feel very fortunate to have been able to work with Roche Diagnostics on this year's contest," said Professor Bill Christie, Dean of the Owen Graduate School of Management at Vanderbilt University. "By having Roche Diagnostics write the business case, we increased the value proposition to them while focusing on other aspects of the event that made this year's contest the most successful ever, from everyone's point of view. The eStrategy Contest is a great example of how business schools can provide students and businesses with access to each other outside the traditional context. Owen is proud to host a case competition of this magnitude both in terms of its impact on the sponsoring companies, but also since it reinforces Owen's prominence in the e-commerce arena."

Vanderbilt University is ideally positioned to be the university sponsor, due to its e-Business leadership through its eLab Research Center, and the business school's close ties to numerous national healthcare organizations. The eStrategy contest has the highest grand prize award among all business school case competitions. This will be the contest's fourth year; previous corporate sponsors include Wal-Mart, AT&T, and Microsoft.


Additional sponsors in the 2003 eStrategy competition include:

•HCA, the nation's leading provider of healthcare services;

•WebMD Envoy, a company that offers a full suite of products to automate key business functions in the healthcare reimbursement cycle;

•Gaylord Entertainment, a leading hospitality and entertainment company based in Nashville, Tenn., owns and operates Gaylord Hotels branded properties; and,

•The eBusiness & Technology Club at the Owen Graduate School of Management at Vanderbilt University.

The judges selected the winner teams without previous knowledge of the schools' names. Teams that entered the eStrategy contest consisted of three to five graduate students who are all currently enrolled full-time at the same college or university. At least one team member must be working toward a Masters in Business Administration (MBA). Additional rules and guidelines are available at the event website at www.estrategycontest.com.

About Roche and the Roche Diagnostics Division

Headquartered in Basel, Switzerland, Roche is one of the world's leading research-oriented healthcare groups. The company's two core businesses in pharmaceuticals and diagnostics provide innovative products and services that address prevention, diagnosis and treatment of diseases, thus enhancing people's health and quality of life. The two core businesses employ about 57,000 employees worldwide. Roche's Diagnostics Division, the world leader in in vitro diagnostics with a uniquely broad product portfolio, supplies a wide array of innovative testing products and services to researchers, physicians, patients, hospitals, and laboratories worldwide. Roche Diagnostics' North American headquarters are located in Indianapolis, Ind. For further information, please visit our websites www.roche.com and www.roche-diagnostics.com.