Cardinal Health, Patient Safety Technologies Enter into Agreement for Surgicount Surgical Safety Products

Cardinal Health and Patient Safety Technologies today announced that they have entered into a five-year exclusive distribution agreement to co-market the SurgiCount Safety-Sponge™ System, which helps prevent retention of sponges and towels unintentionally left in patients during surgical procedures.

The new agreement builds upon a relationship that began in 2006 when Cardinal Health became the exclusive distribution partner for the SurgiCount Safety-Sponge System, a complete and comprehensive sponge counting and documentation system designed to dramatically increase the accuracy of sponge counts performed in hospitals. Cardinal Health will continue to package SurgiCount’s lap sponges, gauze sponges and operating room towels in its market-leading Presource® kits and trays.

In addition, Cardinal Health has issued a $10 million purchase order for SurgiCount products, calling for deliveries over the next 12-month period. As part of the purchase order, Patient Safety Technologies has issued Cardinal Health warrants to purchase 1,250,000 shares of Patient Safety Technologies common stock at $2 per share and 625,000 shares of its common stock at $4 per share.

“Cardinal Health and SurgiCount Medical have created a strong relationship over the past three years with a mutual goal to improve safety in the operating room,” said Steve Inacker, president of Cardinal Health’s Clinical and Procedural businesses. “Our enhanced partnership solidifies the Safety-Sponge System as Cardinal Health’s preferred technology to help our customers protect their patients from retained foreign objects during surgeries.”

To date, Patient Safety Technologies and Cardinal Health have shipped more than 20 million SurgiCount Safety-Sponges that have been used in more than 700,000 procedures without a single undetected retained event. “We are delighted to extend our relationship with Cardinal Health,” said Steven H. Kane, president and chief executive officer of Patient Safety Technologies. “This expanded co-marketing relationship will enable us to accelerate the rate of market adoption of our Safety-Sponge System and advance our goal of becoming the clinical standard of care in the hospital marketplace.”

The Safety-Sponge System is a complete and comprehensive sponge counting and documentation system designed to dramatically increase the accuracy of sponge counts performed in hospitals. SurgiCount labels each sponge with a unique serial number embedded in a data matrix bar code. A SurgiCounter is then used to scan and record the bar codes during the initial and final counts. Because each sponge is identified with a unique code, the SurgiCounter will not allow the same sponge to be counted more than once, leaving the user with a far more accurate and valid sponge count.