Varian Medical Systems to Celebrate Tenth Anniversary and Decade of Growth

PALO ALTO, Calif., April 2 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Varian Medical Systems (NYSE: VAR) today is celebrating its tenth anniversary and a decade of growth and innovation in life-saving technology utilizing X-ray energy for cancer treatment, imaging, and security and inspection.

Varian Medical Systems emerged as a stand-alone company on April 2, 1999 following the division of Varian Associates, a 51-year-old Silicon Valley pioneer, into three separate companies focused on medical technology, semiconductor manufacturing, and scientific instruments.

“We have a lot to celebrate,” said Tim Guertin, president and CEO of Varian Medical Systems. “We have built a growing business based on our mission of focusing energy on protecting and saving lives. We have revolutionized radiotherapy and radiosurgery for treating cancer, paved the way for lower-cost filmless X-ray imaging, and developed systems for fast, automatic detection of threats in cargo moving through ports and borders.”

Varian Medical Systems is now bigger than its parent company was at the time of the division. The company nearly quadrupled its annual revenues, growing from $542 million in fiscal 1998 to $2.1 billion in fiscal 2008. It increased annual operating earnings from $24 million to $419 million over the same period while growing annual net earnings grew from $8 million to $295 million.

Scores of new products were introduced during the decade, in each of Varian’s areas of business:

• Radiation Oncology: Varian has revolutionized radiotherapy and radiosurgery with innovations that are making it more precise, accurate, effective, and affordable as well as more comfortable for patients. Varian has introduced technology for intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT), image-guided radiotherapy (IGRT), stereotactic radiosurgery (SRS), and recently, volumetric arc therapy with its RapidArc(TM) products.

• X-ray Imaging: Varian introduced over 50 new X-ray tubes as well as a complete line of flat-panel digital image detectors that turn X-rays into electronic data that can be transferred to computer screens, eliminating the need for film. It has developed a new breed of compact anode-grounded tubes powerful enough to help CT scanners generate high-quality, diagnostic images fast enough to show a heart beating.

• Security and Inspection: Varian used its vast experience in X-ray technology to develop large-scale high-energy X-ray scanners that can automatically detect dangerous materials hidden in cargo containers.

To keep pace with the growth of the business, Varian Medical systems added 39 locations around the world, including new manufacturing facilities in Las Vegas, Nevada; Beijing, China; and Salt Lake City, Utah; bringing to 79 the total number of sales offices, manufacturing sites, and other types of facilities. The company has expanded its workforce from 2,300 to 5,100 worldwide, and acquired nine other businesses since its independence.

Varian Medical Systems was ranked #12 on the BusinessWeek 50, a ranking of the nation’s best-performing large public corporations in 2009. In 2007, Varian Medical Systems was added to the S&P 500 list of leading companies across the major industries of the U.S. economy.

“We’ve accomplished a great deal in our first decade,” Guertin says. “We’re building a successful business in protecting and saving lives using our expertise in X-ray energy and we will remain focused on this mission for many decades to come.”

Note: For a high-resolution of the Varian Medical Systems company headquarters, click: http://varian.mediaroom.com/file.php/407/Varian_WHQ_0036.jpg.

About Varian Medical Systems

Varian Medical Systems, Inc., of Palo Alto, California, is the world’s leading manufacturer of medical devices and software for treating cancer and other medical conditions with radiotherapy, radiosurgery, proton therapy, and brachytherapy. The company supplies informatics software for managing comprehensive cancer clinics, radiotherapy centers and medical oncology practices. Varian is a premier supplier of tubes and digital detectors for X-ray imaging in medical, scientific, and industrial applications and also supplies X-ray imaging products for cargo screening and industrial inspection. Varian Medical Systems employs approximately 5,100 people who are located at manufacturing sites in North America and Europe and in its 79 sales and support offices around the world. For more information, visit http://www.varian.com/.

    FOR INFORMATION CONTACT:
    Meryl Ginsberg, 650-424-6444
    meryl.ginsberg@varian.com

SOURCE Varian Medical Systems, Inc.