Roche Diagnostics Awarded Blood Glucose Contract by Consorta
Blood glucose agreement broadens access to actionable healthcare information available from Point of Care testing.

Roche Diagnostics announced today that the company has signed a new dual source three-year contract with Consorta to provide hospital glucose meters, test strips, lancets and ancillary connectivity solutions. The contract is effective November 1, 2004 through October 31, 2007 .

Included under these contracts are the ACCU-CHEK® Inform® hospital blood glucose monitor, the ACCU-CHEK Comfort Curve® Hospital Test Strips, the ACCU-CHEK® Safe-T-Pro® Lancet Device, and ancillary IT products, including Medical Automation Systems' RALS® products.

“The contract for blood glucose and lancets provides Consorta members with our complete portfolio of hospital glucose products, and continues our long-term relationship with them,” said Rod Cotton, Vice President and General Manager, Point of Care Diagnostics . “Our blood glucose product portfolio provides healthcare professionals with innovative patient management tools that can help them streamline their information and offer efficiency and safety in their testing.”

Consorta, Inc., based in suburban Chicago , is a leading healthcare resource management and group purchasing organization, whose shareholders are faith-based or non-profit health systems . Consorta now encompasses 475+ acute care facilities, representing 55,944 beds, in addition to 1,800 non-acute care sites. 

“We look forward to working with Roche Diagnostics,” said Lois Brisben, Director of Laboratory services for Consorta. “The breadth of their product line plus their connectivity solutions offers efficient and economical solutions for decentralized testing sites.”

About Roche and the Roche Diagnostics Division

Headquartered in Basel , Switzerland , Roche is one of the world's leading research-intensive healthcare groups. Its core businesses are pharmaceuticals and diagnostics. As a supplier of innovative products and services for the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of disease, the Group contributes on a broad range of fronts to improving people's health and quality of life. Roche Diagnostics is a world leader in diagnostics , the leading supplier of medicines for cancer and transplantation and a market leader in virology. In 2003, the Pharmaceuticals Division generated 19.8 billion Swiss francs in prescription drug sales, while the Diagnostics Division posted sales of 7.4 billion Swiss francs. Roche employs roughly 65,000 people in 150 countries and has R&D agreements and strategic alliances with numerous partners, including majority ownership interests in Genentech and Chugai. 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 world-wide. Roche Centralized Diagnostics, a business area of Roche Diagnostics, is a leading force in developing and supplying new technologies and integrated solutions that help clinical laboratories to operate efficiently and cost effectively.

Roche Diagnostics' North American headquarters is located in Indianapolis , Ind. ( www.roche-diagnostics.us). For further information, please visit www.roche.com and www.roche-diagnostics.com.

ACCU-CHEK, COMFORT CURVE, SAFE-T-PRO, and ACCU-CHEK INFORM are trademarks of a Member of the Roche Group.
RALS is a trademark of Medical Automation Systems

For additional information contact:

Lori LeRoy
Roche Diagnostics
Tel.: +1-317-521-7159
e-mail: lori.leroy@roche.com
www.roche-diagnostics.us