Roche Diagnostics Awarded 7-Year, Sole Source Blood Glucose Contract by HCA
Agreement brings innovative hospital blood glucose solutions to healthcare professionals across the U.S.

Roche Diagnostics announced today that the company has signed a new seven-year contract with Nashville-based HCA, Inc. (NYSE: HCA) to provide bedside blood glucose testing systems to all of the 180 HCA acute care hospitals in the U.S. The overall value of the agreement is expected to be in excess of $50 million.

Included in the contract are the ACCU-CHEK® Inform hospital blood glucose meters, the ACCU-CHEK Comfort Curve® hospital test strips, the ACCU-CHEK® Safe-T-Pro® lancet device, and ancillary IT products.

“This agreement is representative of a strong, long-standing relationship with HCA and HealthTrust Purchasing Group, and brings our full portfolio of hospital blood glucose products to their customers,” said Rod Cotton, Senior Vice President, U.S. Point of Care Diagnostics, Roche Diagnostics. “It underscores our commitment to provide healthcare professionals with best-in-class products and innovative patient management tools that deliver proven value and better patient care.”

HCA is the nation’s leading supplier of healthcare services, composed of locally managed facilities that include approximately 190 hospitals and 91 outpatient surgery centers in 23 states, England and Switzerland.

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

ACCU-CHEK, COMFORT CURVE, SAFE-T-PRO, and ACCU-CHEK INFORM are trademarks of Roche.

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