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Health Robotics Announces Partnership in the People's Republic of China With The Devon International Group

Posted on: Monday, 29 December 2008, 08:00 CST

BOZEN, Italy, December 29 /PRNewswire/ -- Health Robotics today announced that it has signed a definitive agreement with the Devon International Group (DIG), whereby DIG has acquired the exclusive rights to Health Robotics' CytoCare(TM) and i.v.STATION(TM) robots in the People's Republic of China. Health Robotics solutions offer unique benefits with great appeal to Government and Hospital officials in China, such as eliminating human handling of chemotherapy and other hazardous drugs during preparation, greatly improving accuracy, and reducing potentially fatal medication errors. DIG will initially staff its Health Robotics product team at its Beijing and Shanghai office locations, in addition to planned local manufacturing operations.

CytoCare(TM) is the world's first and only automated robotic system for the safe preparation of hazardous patient-specific IV medications. Originally developed for Cancer Therapy, CytoCare(TM) has also been proven to compound Monoclonal Antibodies Therapy IV Admixtures to treat patients with Crohn's disease, Organ Transplants, Multiple Sclerosis, Rheumatoid Arthritis, and Infectious Diseases. i.v.STATION(TM) is the world's first and only automated, point-of-care-distributed, and fail-safe robotic system for the sterile and accurate preparation of non-hazardous IV Admixtures.

"Given DIG's strong presence in the People's Republic of China with some of our other high-tech manufacturing subsidiaries, we embarked in due diligence with our local partners, Government officials, and leading healthcare providers to determine if this was the right time to bring Health Robotics' unique technology to China. Increased safety for patients and clinicians, higher accuracy of IV Admixtures, reduced waste, and improved efficiency of hospitals' pharmacy workflow are among the key benefits that I have witnessed in North America for both CytoCare(TM) and i.v.STATION(TM). After I personally met several key Chinese healthcare officials and hospitals in October 2008, I became convinced that China is ready to begin embracing Health Robotics' solutions in the critical area of cancer care where medication errors can mean the difference between life and death. While CytoCare(TM) remedies the considerable Chinese-specific problem of retention of child-bearing-age clinicians due to the hazardous nature of Chemo IVs, i.v.STATION(TM) solves the IV sterility issues associated with compounding at non-sterile patient care locations. We look forward to officially launch both Health Robotics' solutions at the China International Medical Equipment Fair in Shenzhen on April 18-21, 2009," stated John A. Bennett, CEO of the Devon International Group.

"We are very pleased to expand our strategic DIG partnership with comprehensive operations in China, including the potential to streamline costs and manufacturing operations by utilizing DIG's competitive advantages with access to its world-class, ISO-certified, China-based high-tech and medical devices manufacturing expertise. In addition we are excited to work with the 40-people-strong DIG marketing and service teams in Shanghai and Beijing. This rounds up an excellent year for our company where we have continued to see the exclusive worldwide dominance of CytoCare(TM).

This global dominance has been further proven recently by Jane Arnot, a senior VP from one of our potential competitors, mailing several CytoCare(TM) "live" customers to request visits by RIVA's engineering staff in order to attempt to learn how to prepare chemotherapy drugs with robotic technology and learn from CytoCare(TM) features.

These requests from Ms. Arnot came more than three years after the same company (IHS) publicly announced that they were already able to handle chemotherapy IV medications, and curiously, also subsequent to the fact that the same company was unable to deliver on-time on its promises to customers anywhere in the world. While it is somewhat flattering to see other companies try to learn from CytoCare(TM), we are obviously not going to permit it. We have also begun to see Health Robotics' emerging dominance in the area of non-hazardous IV Admixtures after the i.v.STATION(TM) global installation kick-off at ASHP Mid-Year Meeting in Orlando, by logging in excess of 800 future purchase orders for i.v.STATION(TM) within 6 months of its announcement, more than 25 times the total 10+ year sales volume of all our competitor's non-hazardous IV Robots combined," stated Werner Rainer, CEO of Health Robotics.

About the Devon International Group

The Devon International Group (DIG) is a multi-national group of companies headquartered in King of Prussia, Pennsylvania, spanning the healthcare, information technology, and international business industries. Its flagship companies includes Devon Health Services, a national healthcare cost management company and the largest privately held Preferred Provider Organization (PPO) in the Northeast U.S., Devon IT, the world's third largest manufacturer of thin clients, Devon Medical, and Devon Robotics. In addition to its headquarters and other USA-based office locations, Devon International Group has offices in Dublin (Ireland), London, Lithuania, Bangalore, Shanghai, and Beijing.

About Health Robotics:

Health Robotics is the global leading supplier of life-critical intra-venous medication preparation, compounding, and dispensing Robots, providing health care facilities around the world with robotic technology and software automation solutions. The world-leading solutions CytoCare(TM) [hazardous IVs] and i.v.STATION(TM) [non-hazardous IVs] have and will greatly contribute to ease global hospitals' & clinics' growing pressures to improve patient safety through effective and efficient production of sterile, safe, accurate, and ready-to-administer IVs, to decrease life-threatening medication errors and cross-contamination risks, and to work more efficiently, increase throughput, reduce waste, and contain spiraling costs.

SOURCE Health Robotics SRL

Source: PR Newswire

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