Cepheid Signs Group Purchasing Contract with Novation, the Nation's Largest Healthcare Contracting Or...( Through its affiliations Novation re...)

Through its affiliations, Novation represents 49 percent of admissions and

52 percent of total surgeries in the United States

SUNNYVALE, Calif., May 20 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Cepheid (Nasdaq: CPHD) today announced it has signed a contract with Novation, the industry's leading contracting services company serving VHA Inc., University HealthSystem Consortium (UHC) and Provista, LLC. Through its affiliations, Novation represents 49 percent of admissions, 52 percent of total surgeries and 44 percent of staffed beds in the United States. Under the terms of the contract, VHA, UHC and Provista members can take advantage of Cepheid's GeneXpert(R) System and Xpert(TM) MRSA tests at pre-negotiated prices.

"Institutions accessing Novation contracts are recognizing that active surveillance, with rapid turnaround time, is a key component of a comprehensive infection control program," said Rob Koska, Cepheid's Senior Vice President of Worldwide Commercial Operations. "We look forward to working with these institutions as they deploy the most rapid and effective surveillance testing technology in the industry."

MRSA is recognized as a growing public health concern, cited as a leading cause of Healthcare Acquired Infections (HAIs). Infection rates have increased every year since 1970. Xpert MRSA test results are currently available in approximately 70 minutes, thereby enabling rapid identification of carriers of the pathogen in less than 2 hours from the time of patient sampling to the delivery of test results to the floor. The availability of the Xpert MRSA test and the GeneXpert System is expected to enable Novation hospitals to implement more efficient infection control measures, leading to lower HAI rates and improved patient care.

On-demand Xpert MRSA results enable healthcare professionals to rapidly identify MRSA colonized patients entering the hospital population, thereby reducing risk of potential transmission. As recent st
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