Medrad, Inc. Opens New Disposables Plant in Butler County

CLINTON TWP, Pa., Jan. 10 /PRNewswire/ -- MEDRAD, INC., a worldwide leading provider of medical devices and services that enable and enhance imaging procedures of the human body, today celebrated the grand opening of a new manufacturing facility that will produce disposable components for its vascular injection systems. The 120,000-square-foot facility currently employs 70, with potential employment anticipated to reach hundreds of new jobs over the next several years, making it one of the largest single sources of new jobs in Butler County and one of the largest single sources of new manufacturing jobs in Western Pennsylvania.

(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20040309/MEDRADLOGO )

The facility is located on the former site of a U.S. Steel sintering plant in Victory Road Business Park in Clinton Township, Butler County. It is 30 miles north of Downtown Pittsburgh and about 14 miles from MEDRAD's original sterile disposables operation on Route 910 in Indianola, Pa., which will remain in operation.

"The Saxonburg facility went from groundbreaking to start-up in just 10 months, and is critical to meeting the demand for imaging procedures that enable earlier, more accurate diagnosis and improved treatment," said President and CEO John P. Friel. "It provides us with needed additional plant capacity in the short term, and its phased growth design gives us the capacity to add production lines in the future."

The building is also designed to be LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certified. LEED certification requires that a building meet stringent measures and tests of its energy efficiency and environmentally friendly construction through use of natural lighting, biodegradable materials and construction practices that reduce human impact on the site.

At the heart of the new facility is an extensive clean room environment in which workers manufacture disposable components used to inject contrast dyes during medical imaging procedures. MEDRAD's disposable products consist primarily of high-pressure, large-volume syringes and injection systems, including specialty tubing, used to inject contrast agents as part of computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance (MR) and angiography medical imaging scans. Such scans can improve patient care by detecting disease in its early stages, tracking existing disease progression and enabling alternatives to surgery.

MEDRAD began a worldwide review in June 2005 to identify a site for the new facility. The Clinton Township site emerged as the best choice for several reasons: close proximity to other MEDRAD locations, which will help it preserve and leverage the MEDRAD culture; close proximity to a majority of MEDRAD's customer and supplier base; a 20-acre site that has room for possible future growth; and it could be prepared quickly, meeting the timetable for expected customer demand. The Victory Road Business Park is also part of a Keystone Opportunity Zone (KOZ), which the commonwealth has developed to encourage businesses to invest in Pennsylvania.

This is the second major MEDRAD facility to open in the last year. MEDRAD celebrated the grand opening of its 125,000-square-foot Global Center in June 2007. The Global Center, in the TECH 21 Research Park in Warrendale, Pa., Allegheny County, houses more than 260 employees in Corporate Services, Corporate Compliance, Sales/Customer Support and Corporate Operations.

In addition to the new disposables plant and its Global Center, MEDRAD operates two other local facilities. Its Indianola facility, on Rt. 910 in Indiana Township, Allegheny County, houses MEDRAD's Computed Tomography (CT), Cardiovascular (CV) and Magnetic Resonance (MR) Strategic Business Units, as well as its Innovations group and the original sterile disposables manufacturing operation. The company's Heilman Center, in RIDC Park, O'Hara Township, Allegheny County, houses its electromechanical manufacturing, equipment service and Multi-Vendor Service operations. In total, the company employs over 1,700 employees worldwide, about 1,200 of them in Western Pennsylvania.

MEDRAD, INC. is a worldwide leading provider of medical devices and services that enable and enhance imaging procedures of the human body. Used in diagnostic imaging, MEDRAD's product offerings include a comprehensive line of vascular injection systems, magnetic resonance (MR) surface coils and patient care products, and equipment services. Total 2006 revenues were $478 million. MEDRAD is a 2003 recipient of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award, the top honor a U.S. company can receive for quality and business excellence. The company's world headquarters is near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in the United States. MEDRAD is an affiliate of Bayer AG. More company information is available at www.medrad.com.

Bayer AG is one of the world's leading, innovative companies in the healthcare and medical products industry and is based in Leverkusen, Germany. The company combines the global activities of the Animal Health, Consumer Care, Diabetes Care, and Pharmaceuticals divisions. The Pharmaceuticals division comprises the following business units: Women's Healthcare, Diagnostic Imaging, Specialized Therapeutics, Hematology/Cardiology, Primary Care, and Oncology. The company's aim is to discover and manufacture products that will improve human and animal health worldwide. The products enhance well being and quality of life by diagnosing, preventing and treating diseases.

Cautionary statement regarding forward-looking statements.

Certain statements in this press release that are neither reported financial results nor other historical information are forward-looking statements, including but not limited to, statements that are predictions of or indicate future events, trends, plans or objectives. Undue reliance should not be placed on such statements because, by their nature, they are subject to known and unknown risks and uncertainties and can be affected by other factors that could cause actual results and MEDRAD's plans and objectives to differ materially from those expressed or implied in the forward-looking statements. MEDRAD, INC. undertakes no obligation to update publicly or revise any of these forward-looking statements, whether to reflect new information or future events or circumstances or otherwise.

CONTACT: Luanne Radermacher of MEDRAD, INC., +1-724-940-7968,
lradermacher@medrad.com; or Shannon Baker of WordWrite Communications LLC,
+1-412-894-8767, shannon.baker@wordwritepr.com, for MEDRAD, INC.

Web site: http://www.medrad.com/