Press Releases

SAN DIEGO, May 24, 2005 - Cardinal Health, Inc. (NYSE: CAH), the leading provider of products and services supporting the health care industry, announced it has signed an agreement extension to offer its Alaris® products to health systems served by Amerinet through February 2009. The agreement is the first to offer additional savings for health systems that also adopt Cardinal Health’s Pyxis® products. 

The agreement is sole source for the Alaris® System* in the smart system safety technology category and dual source for the Alaris® SE Channel Pump** and Guardrails® Suite of safety software in the smart pump technology category. Additional savings can be realized on the full suite of Pyxis® medication and supply automation products for members that select both the top-tier Alaris® System and the Pyxis® MedSystem medication management products and consulting services.

“Our members want access to the most innovative technologies on the market that can improve patient safety and reduce medication errors,” said Allen Dunehew, vice president of pharmacy contracting for Amerinet. “The broad selection of medication management solutions Cardinal Health offers is unsurpassed, and we’re pleased to provide our members with savings on the safety-focused technologies of Alaris® products and Pyxis® products.”

The Alaris® System with the Guardrails® Suite of safety software has demonstrated measurable improvements in patient safety and clinical performance in managing IV medications at the point of care. The system is the first and only of its kind to offer an integrated modular platform that has the ability to include infusion therapy and patient monitoring for enhanced patient safety at the bedside.

Pyxis® MedSystem provides communication and workflow-optimization tools to help reduce chances of medication-dispensing errors and enhance collaboration between nurses and pharmacists. The system includes Pyxis® Clinical Consulting Services, the Pyxis MedStation® 3000 medication management system, the Pyxis Connect™ Plus physician order management system and industry-leading service and support resources.

“By bringing together Alaris® products and Pyxis® products, we’re able to offer a powerful suite of medication management systems that can truly have an impact on safety at the point of care,” said Dave Schlotterbeck, chairman and chief executive officer of the Clinical Technologies and Services segment of Cardinal Health. “We will continue developing synergies between the two product lines to bring an even more powerful medication management solutions to the market.”

Together, the products and services offered by Cardinal Health provide the highest level of safety available from a single company offering medication safety technology. Combining the medication management power of Alaris® products and Pyxis® products can improve patient safety from the point of order to the point of care, affecting all aspects of the medication-use process.

* Alaris® System formerly known as the Medley® System.
** Alaris® SE Channel Pump formerly known as Signature Edition® GOLD Infusion System.

About Cardinal Health
Cardinal Health, Inc. (www.cardinalhealth.com) is the leading provider of products and services supporting the health care industry. Cardinal Health develops, manufactures, packages and markets products for patient care; develops drug-delivery technologies; distributes pharmaceuticals and medical, surgical and laboratory supplies; and offers consulting and other services that improve quality and efficiency in health care. Headquartered in Dublin, Ohio, Cardinal Health employs more than 55,000 people on six continents and produces annual revenues of more than $65 billion.

Except for historical information, all other information in this news release consists of forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected, anticipated or implied. The most significant of these uncertainties are described in Cardinal Health's Form 10-K, Form 8-K and Form 10-Q reports (including all amendments to those reports) and exhibits to those reports, and include (but are not limited to) the costs, difficulties, and uncertainties related to the integration of acquired businesses, the loss of one or more key customer or supplier relationships or changes to the terms of those relationships, changes in the distribution patterns or reimbursement rates for health-care products and/or services, the results, consequences, effects or timing of any inquiry or investigation by any regulatory authority or any legal and administrative proceedings, the impact of previously announced restatements, difficulties in opening new facilities or fully utilizing existing capacity, difficulties and uncertainties associated with business model transitions, including the conversion of margin generated from branded pharmaceutical manufacturers to non-contingent consideration, and general economic and market conditions. Cardinal Health undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statement.

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