Roche Diagnostics Awarded 3-Year Contract Renewal by MedAssets Supply Chain Systems for Blood Glucose Products

Roche Diagnostics announced today that the company has signed a three year contract renewal with MedAssets Supply Chain Systems, one of the largest group purchasing organizations (GPO) in the U.S., to provide blood glucose testing products to their healthcare customers. The new contract was effective November 1, 2005.

According to Lori Gabrek, Vice President of Sales, Hospital Group of Roche Diagnostics Corporation, “Roche Diagnostics has established itself as a leader in point-of-care testing, including our line of ACCU-CHEK® glucose meters and ACCU-CHEK® Comfort Curve® test strips. We are excited to continue our strong partnership with MedAssets in the blood glucose testing category.”

Mary Ellen Kimmeth, Vice President, Laboratory Division, MedAssets Supply Chain Systems said, “Our membership input with regard to the quality and demand for the Roche products was the determining factor for the renewal.”

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. New to the contract are the ACCU-CHEK® Go blood glucose meter and test strips which were developed by Roche Diagnostics strictly for the long term care market.

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 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

About MedAssets

MedAssets, headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, improves healthcare providers' margin and cash flow through revenue cycle and supply chain initiatives. As a strategic business partner, MedAssets can replace multiple vendors and decrease supply costs by 3-10 % and increase net patient revenue by 1-3 %. Proprietary information technology is used to work with and improve existing IT assets and work processes. MedAssets, through its revenue cycle subsidiary MedAssets Net Revenue Systems, provides best-of-breed revenue solutions including strategic pricing, pre-bill charge capturing, and ongoing chargemaster management tools, all of which have been Peer Reviewed by the Healthcare Financial Management Association. In addition, MedAssets offers technology enabled systems to manage claims denials and to link supply cost data with charge data to ensure accurate charges and defendable markups for all patient identifiable supplies, including costly medical devices. MedAssets, through its supply chain subsidiary MedAssets Supply Chain Systems, operates the fastest growing group purchasing organization and supply chain services company in the U.S. and builds customized solutions encompassing procurement of common medical supplies, pharmaceuticals, physician preference supplies, food and nutrition items, and capital equipment.

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ACCU-CHEK, Comfort Curve, Safe-T-Pro, ACCU-CHEK Go and ACCU-CHEK Info are trademarks of Roche.