McKesson Corporation and Roche Diagnostics Announce Exclusive National Physician Office Laboratory Distribution Agreement
McKesson (NYSE: MCK) of San Francisco and Roche Diagnostics Corporation of Indianapolis, Ind. jointly announce an exclusive national distribution agreement for Roche Diagnostics’ line of chemistry, and immunochemistry products for the physician’s office.

This multi-year arrangement calls for the marketing and sales to physician practices of Roche’s COBAS Integra® analyzer systems and Elecsys® analyzer systems for which Roche Diagnostics already has a leading worldwide position in the hospital and reference laboratory market.

“Roche Diagnostics is pleased to announce our new agreement with McKesson to better serve our joint physician office laboratory customers,” said Rod Cotton, Senior Vice President, U.S. Point of Care Diagnostics, Roche Diagnostics. “The COBAS Integra and Elecsys analyzers provide our customers increased productivity with fast, accurate results, streamlined workflow efficiency, and proven reliability. We believe McKesson’s Primary Care presence and investments in resources and relationships in this arena, together with our products, will align extremely well for our mutual success.”

“Our new Physician Office Laboratory program offers a comprehensive suite of products and services designed to help physician practices enhance patient care through in-office patient testing,” said Gary Keeler, President of Primary Care Sales for McKesson Medical-Surgical. “The addition of Roche Diagnostics’ innovative Integra and Elecsys analyzers to our program will provide significant benefit to our customers.”

About McKesson

McKesson (NYSE: MCK), is a Fortune 15 healthcare services and information technology company dedicated to helping its customers deliver high-quality healthcare by reducing costs, streamlining processes and improving the quality and safety of patient care. Over the course of its 172-year history, McKesson has grown by providing pharmaceutical and medical-surgical supply management across the spectrum of care; healthcare information technology for hospitals, physicians, homecare and payors; hospital and retail pharmacy automation; and services for manufacturers and payors designed to improve outcomes for patients. For more information, visit us at www.mckesson.com.

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 is a world leader in Diagnostics, the leading supplier of medicines for cancer and transplantation and a market leader in virology. In 2004, the Pharmaceuticals Division generated 21.7 billion Swiss francs in prescription drug sales, while the Diagnostics Division posted sales of 7.8 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, 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 Point of Care Diagnostics, a business area of Roche Diagnostics, supplies products and systems for near patient diagnostic testing in hospitals and outpatient settings.

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

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