Roche Diagnostics wins new Novation contract, expands available products

Roche Diagnostics this week announced the signing of two new contracts with Novation, the healthcare contracting services company of VHA Inc. and the University HealthSystem Consortium (UHC), two national healthcare alliances.

Nearly 2,500 VHA and UHC members spend about $425 million annually on chemistry and immunoassay products.  Using the power of bulk purchasing, Novation negotiates savings for its alliance members on key products and services. The Roche three-year contracts for chemistry and immunoassay products, including automation, begins July 1 and continues through June 30, 2010.  Roche has held contracts with Novation in these product categories for the past five years.

“We are very pleased to build on our existing relationship with Novation by offering its members access to more automated products in the new contracts,” said Andrew Thomson, Senior Vice President, Centralized Diagnostics. “We also are delighted to be one of two contractors providing Novation members with both immunoassay and clinical chemistry products.”

Novation featured Roche Diagnostics’ cobas® 6000 series analyzer, which incorporates both chemistry and immunochemistry into one integrated platform, in its 2007 New Medical Technology Catalog. The cobas® 6000 series analyzer was designed specifically for the mid-size lab.

“Novation is pleased to continue to offer alliance members chemistry and immunochemistry platofrms that can help drive efficiences, such as with the cobas® 6000 series analyzer,” said Sherry Dobis, Director for the Novation laboratory program.

“Roche can offer a solution to any Novation alliance member, regardless of the number of tests they perform annually,” said Thomson. “We have integrated solutions for large and mid-size labs, as well as stand-alone instrumentation for the small laboratory. Our comprehensive portfolio provides labs with strong and appropriate choices as they grow.”

The immunoassay contract includes heart disease tests ProBNP and troponin T,  thrombosis test D-Dimer and free Prostate-Specific Antigen, which tests for prostate cancer. Therapeutic drug monitoring and drugs-of-abuse assays are also part of the clinical chemistry contract.

About Roche and the Roche Diagnostics Division

Headquartered in Basel, Switzerland, Roche is one of the world’s leading research-focused healthcare groups in the fields of pharmaceuticals and diagnostics. As a supplier of innovative products and services for the early detection, prevention, diagnosis and treatment of diseases, 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 drugs for cancer and transplantation and a market leader in virology. In 2006, sales by the Pharmaceuticals Division totalled 33.3 billion Swiss francs, and the Diagnostics Division posted sales of 8.7 billion Swiss francs. Roche employs roughly 75,000 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 offers a uniquely broad product portfolio and supplies a wide array of innovative testing products and services to researchers, physicians, patients, hospitals and laboratories world-wide. For further information, please visit our website www.roche.com.

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