B. Braun Wins Third Consecutive Safety IV Catheters Contract Award from Premier, Inc.

B. Braun Medical Inc. (B. Braun) announces its latest contract with Premier Purchasing Partners, the group purchasing unit of Premier, Inc., which will provide Premiers members a network of approximately 2,400 U.S. hospitals and 70,000 other healthcare facilities with the continued benefit of B. Brauns comprehensive portfolio of IV therapy products and solutions at specially terms.

The three-year agreement went into effect on Oct. 1, 2010 and stands to reinforce the strength of the relationship B. Braun has built with Premier over the years. This is B. Brauns third contract renewal, amounting to a total of 6 years of partnership.

"We look forward to continuing our partnership with Premier in an effort to improve patient care and safety within the medical device industry," says Tom Sutton, vice president of vascular access and IV systems for B. Braun Medical Inc. "We attribute this win to the strength of our proven, truly passive safety technology."

B. Brauns Introcan Safety® IV Catheter the product in which this contract is focused is designed with a unique passive safety feature that automatically activates to help minimize accidental needlestick injuries.

To further reinforce the need for the use of passive safety devices, B. Braun points to a recent landmark study of 22 million safety devices the first head-to-head comparison of safety-engineered devices by safety technology type conducted by GERES (Groupe dEtude sur le Risque dExposition des Soignants) which concluded that passive safety engineered devices are more effective than active devices for needlestick injury (NSI) prevention. Fully automatic or passive safety devices, such as the B. Braun Introcan Safety® IV Catheter, require the least manipulation to cover the needles and therefore have the lowest injury rate.