News

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT:
Henry Bostic
Premier Inc.
704.733.5695

Premier alliance launches new microbiology agreements

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (October 30, 2007) – Premier Purchasing Partners, LP, today announced it has awarded agreements for two clinical laboratory categories: automated blood culture and automated microbial identification.

New agreements for automated blood culture and mycobacterial recovery analyzers, reagents, consumables and service have been awarded to bioMérieux Inc. of Durham, N.C., and BD of Franklin Lakes, N.J.

New agreements for automated microbial identification and susceptibility analyzers, reagents, consumables and service have been awarded to bioMérieux Inc. and Dade Behring of Deerfield, Ill.

Both portfolios, effective October 1, 2007, are available to acute and continuum of care members of the Premier alliance.

About Premier Inc., 2006 Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award recipient
Serving 1,700 hospitals and more than 48,500 other healthcare sites, Premier is the largest healthcare alliance in the United States dedicated to improving patient outcomes while safely reducing the cost of care. Owned by not-for-profit hospitals, Premier operates one of the nation's largest healthcare purchasing networks, the most comprehensive repository of hospital clinical and financial information and one of the largest policy-holder owned, hospital professional liability risk-retention groups in healthcare. Headquartered in San Diego, Premier has offices in Charlotte, N.C., Philadelphia and Washington. For more information, visit www.premierinc.com.