Cardinal Health Introduces Central Supply Chain Registry

DUBLIN, Ohio, Nov. 8 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Cardinal Health, Inc. , the leading provider of products and services supporting the health care industry, today announced the introduction of SupplyCentral(TM), a health care product synchronization database. The SupplyCentral database is a central registry of medical and surgical product information that will increase the accuracy, speed and efficiency of the supply chain for Integrated Delivery Networks (IDNs), hospitals, distributors and manufacturers.

“Trading partners within the health care industry need a way to correct, synchronize and update incorrect and erroneous product data -- and the SupplyCentral database is the solution,” said Dwight Winstead, president and COO of Clinical Technologies and Services. “The SupplyCentral database’s ability to lower costs, increase efficiency and reduce the number of errors is a promising value proposition.”

The ability to efficiently, effectively and expeditiously move health care products through the supply chain to the end user is an enormous challenge burdened with hidden costs. According to one recent study, 24 percent of all supply management employee time at hospital and distributor sites is spent on correcting data integrity errors.

Cardinal Health’s SupplyCentral database will reduce the number of invoice errors, out-of-stock incidences, and rework errors as well as the manual resources used to correct them. Both patients and consumers benefit when products and materials are delivered faster and with fewer mistakes.

“Simply stated, this database will give the entire health care supply chain access to an electronic library that also can publish, transmit and download standardized product information,” said Charlie Burwell, senior vice president of strategic development. “As a result, IDNs, distributors, suppliers and manufacturers will be able to minimize the added costs and headaches associated with supply chain errors by efficiently synchronizing health care product information.”

About Cardinal Health

Cardinal Health, Inc. ( http://www.cardinal.com/ ) is the leading provider of products, services and technologies supporting the health care industry. Cardinal Health develops, manufactures, packages and markets products for patient care; develops drug-delivery technologies; distributes pharmaceuticals and medical, surgical and laboratory supplies; and offers consulting and other services that improve quality and efficiency in health care. Headquartered in Dublin, Ohio, Cardinal Health employs over 55,000 people on six continents and produces annual revenues of more than $50 billion. Cardinal Health is ranked No. 17 on the Fortune 500 list and is named one of the best U.S. companies by Forbes magazine for 2004.

Except for historical information, all other information in this news release consists of forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected, anticipated or implied. The most significant of these uncertainties are described in Cardinal Health’s Form 10-K, Form 8-K and Form 10-Q reports (including all amendments to those reports) and exhibits to those reports, and include (but are not limited to) the costs, difficulties, and uncertainties related to the integration of acquired businesses, the loss of one or more key customer or supplier relationships or changes to the terms of those relationships, changes in the distribution patterns or reimbursement rates for health-care products and/or services, the results, consequences, effects or timing of any inquiry or investigation by any regulatory authority or any legal and administrative proceedings, the impact of previously announced restatements, and general economic and market conditions. Cardinal Health undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statement.

Cardinal Health, Inc.

CONTACT: Media, Alysia Turner, +1-281-749-4390, oralysia.turner@cardinal.com ; or Investors, Jim Hinrichs, +1-614-757-5035, orjim.hinrichs@cardinal.com , both of Cardinal Health, Inc.