Quest Diagnostics Joins E-Prescribing Initiative

Quest Diagnostics announced recently that it has joined the National ePrescribing Patient Safety Initiative (NePSI), and will offer physicians access to its Care3⁶ physician portal and results capabilities.

NePSI is a coalition of technology companies and healthcare organizations dedicated to improving patient safety by providing free access to simple, safe and secure electronic prescribing for every physician in America.

Quest Diagnostics will provide eRx NOW, a web based NePSI electronic prescribing application from Chicago-based Allscripts, access to pending lab results and its Care360 physician portal. Physicians will be able to order lab tests and view, flow and graph laboratory results, as well as run analyses on patient populations.

Quest Diagnostics provides more than 115,000 physicians nationwide with its connectivity products. The company believes that its large customer base will help drive market penetration and physician utilization of electronic prescribing.

(Ref: The eHealth dated November 2007)

Ventana Medical In Pact With Roche

Ventana Medical Systems, Inc., the global leader in tissue-based cancer diagnostics, has entered into a confidentiality agreement with Roche. The agreement will allow Roche to commence due diligence and have appropriate access to non-public information regarding Ventana to better understand the company’s business prospects and the inherent value in companion diagnostics.

Ventana’s board believes that the due diligence conducted by Roche and related discussions that will accompany the due diligence process will allow Roche to recognize the significant additional value inherent in Ventana’s business.

Prior to the execution of the confidentially agreement, Ventana had not commenced negotiations with Roche and no assurance can be made that Roche and Ventana will ultimately enter into a definitive agreement, an official press release stated.

Ventana’s board of director reiterated that Roche’s $75 offer s grossly inadequate and not an appropriate starting point for negotiations as reflected by that fact that Ventana’s share price has consistently traded well above Roche’s offer and our stockholders have overwhelmingly rejected that offer four times. Furthermore, the board continues to believe Roche’s offer does not appropriately compensate Ventana’s stockholders for the inherent value of the company or its synergistic value to Roche.

(Ref: The Chronicle Pharmabiz dated November 22, 2007)