WCTF.org Transplant News

Magnevist(R) and Ultravist(R) are part of Amerinet's Portfolio of Contracted Contrast Media

WAYNE, N.J., April 8, 2008 /PRNewswire/ -- Bayer HealthCare Pharmaceuticals Inc., a leader in diagnostic imaging, announced today that the company has been awarded a two-year contract by Amerinet, Inc. to make Magnevist(R) (gadopentetate dimeglumine) injection and Ultravist(R) (iopromide) injection available to members of the Amerinet network.

Amerinet is a leading national health care group purchasing organization that serves more than 26,000 acute and non-acute healthcare providers nationwide. Through its Total Spend Management Solutions program, Amerinet strategically partners with health care providers to improve its customers' operating margins by creating efficiencies, reducing costs and identifying new revenue streams. The company is based in St. Louis, with offices in Salt Lake City, Utah, Providence, R.I., and Warrendale, Pa.

"We are pleased to continue our long-standing relationship with Amerinet and remain committed to providing its members with the high-quality, cost-effective products they need to serve their patient community," said Douglas Stefanelli, Vice President and General Manager, Diagnostic Imaging, Bayer HealthCare Pharmaceuticals.

The agreement is effective March 1, 2008 through 2010. It covers Magnevist in multiple presentations, including 5, 10, 15 and 20 mL single-dose vials, 50 and 100 mL pharmacy bulk packages, and 10, 15 and 20 mL pre-filled syringes of Magnevist. Ultravist will be available in four concentrations (150, 240, 300 and 370 mgI) and in a variety of product presentations, including 500 mL pharmacy bulk packages for the 300 mgI and 370 mgI concentrations.

About Magnevist

Magnevist is currently the leading MRI contrast agent in the US and worldwide, a position attained through a combination of high product quality and outstanding customer service. Since its introduction, Magnevist has been used in over 90 million procedures worldwide and continues to be the most studied MRI contrast agent on the market. It currently has the broadest range of FDA-approved indications for adult and pediatric patients. For more information about approved indications, please visit http://www.imaging.bayerhealthcare.com/html/magnevist/prescribing_info.html.

WARNING: NEPHROGENIC SYSTEMIC FIBROSIS

Gadolinium-based contrast agents increase the risk of Nephrogenic Systemic Fibrosis in patients with:

-- acute or chronic severe renal insufficiency (glomerular filtration
rate <30 mL/min/1.73 m2), or
-- acute renal insufficiency of any severity due to the hepato-renal
syndrome or in the perioperative liver transplantation period.

In these patients, avoid the use of gadolinium-based contrast agents unless the diagnostic information is essential and not available with non- contrast enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). NSF may result in fatal or debilitating systemic fibrosis affecting the skin, muscle and internal organs. Screen all patients for renal dysfunction by obtaining a history and/or laboratory tests. When administering a gadolinium-based contrast agent, do not exceed the recommended dose and allow a sufficient period of time for elimination of the agent from the body prior to any readministration.

MAGNEVIST(R) (gadopentetate dimeglumine) injection: As with other contrast media, the possibility of serious or life-threatening anaphylactic or anaphylactoid reactions, including cardiovascular, respiratory and/or cutaneous manifestations, should always be considered. As with other paramagnetic contrast agents, caution should be exercised in patients with renal insufficiency, due to the possibility of further deterioration in renal function. As with other injectable products, cases of phlebitis and thrombophlebitis have been reported; assessment of the dosed limb for the development of injection site reactions is recommended.

Safety and efficacy in children under the age of 2 years have not been established.

About Ultravist

ULTRAVIST(R) (iopromide) injection is a well-tolerated, non-ionic, iodinated, low osmolar radiological contrast imaging agent for intravascular administration. Its low viscosity helps enable ease of administration and rapid iodine delivery rate. Through clinical experience in over 100 million patients worldwide, Ultravist has been shown to offer a combination of contrast quality with a well-established general and local tolerability profile. It has been shown to be safe and effective in all major intravenous and intra-arterial indications.

Ultravist is offered in four concentrations: 150, 240, 300 and 370 mg iodine per mL. The 370 mg of iodine is the highest commercially available iodine concentration in the United States. In the United States, Ultravist is available in a variety of vial sizes, including a 500mL Pharmacy Bulk Package.

ULTRAVIST(R) (iopromide) injection: All non-ionic, iodinated contrast media currently available inhibit blood coagulation in vitro less than ionic contrast media. Clotting has been reported when blood remains in contact with syringes containing non-ionic contrast media. Therefore, meticulous intravascular administration technique is necessary to minimize thromboembolic events. As with all iodinated contrast agents, serious or fatal reactions have been associated with their use.

ULTRAVIST injection is not indicated for intrathecal use.

About Bayer HealthCare Pharmaceuticals

Bayer HealthCare Pharmaceuticals Inc. is the U.S.-based pharmaceuticals unit of Bayer HealthCare LLC, a division of Bayer AG. One of the world's leading, innovative companies in the healthcare and medical products industry, Bayer HealthCare combines the global activities of the Animal Health, Consumer Care, Diabetes Care, and Pharmaceuticals divisions. In the US, Bayer HealthCare Pharmaceuticals comprises the following business units: Women's Healthcare, Diagnostic Imaging, Specialized Therapeutics, Hematology/Cardiology and Oncology. The company's aim is to discover and manufacture products that will improve human health worldwide by diagnosing, preventing and treating diseases.

This news release contains forward-looking statements based on current assumptions and forecasts made by Bayer Group management. Various known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors could lead to material differences between the actual future results, financial situation, development or performance of the company and the estimates given here. These factors include those discussed in our public reports filed with the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (including Form 20-F). The company assumes no liability whatsoever to update these forward-looking statements or to conform them to future events or developments.

Source: Bayer HealthCare Pharmaceuticals Inc.

CONTACT: Joanne Marlin, Bayer HealthCare, +1-973-305-5383

Web site:

http://www.berlex.com/

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Profile: Transplant News

Four kidney donors and four recipients simultaneously underwent surgery

CHICAGO, April 8, 2008 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- On Thursday, April 3, transplant surgeons at Northwestern Memorial Hospital successfully completed a rare procedure known as a four-way domino paired kidney exchange involving a total of eight patients. The surgery is among the nation's largest paired exchanges and involved four kidney donors and four recipients who underwent simultaneous transplant surgery. The donors were two women and two men, as were the recipients. All are recovering well following surgery, which involved a total of 32 clinicians -- six of them surgeons -- working between four operating rooms and took more than 10 hours to complete.

"This is a landmark surgery for our transplant team," said Joseph Leventhal, MD, PhD, transplant surgeon and director of the living donor kidney transplant program at Northwestern Memorial. "We are excited to have coordinated and successfully completed the region's first four-way exchange, and the largest paired exchange to ever occur at our hospital."

Northwestern Memorial's transplant team had previously performed what's known as a two-way paired exchange. This type of transplant is made possible when a kidney donor and their intended recipient are incompatible, but are matched with another donor and recipient in the same situation. But even paired kidney exchanges involving four patients are incredibly rare due to numerous compatibility requirements including blood type matching, tissue matching and crossmatching.

Events leading to last Thursday's "domino" exchange began to unfold when three transplant candidates came to Northwestern Memorial with donors, but all pairs discovered they were incompatible after testing. Simultaneous to these events, a Good Samaritan who always intended to be a living donor presented himself to the hospital's transplant program and offered one of his kidneys to whoever was in the greatest need. Unbeknownst to him, his act of kindness was the catalyst that set off a chain of compatibility for several recipients, because by adding a fourth transplant candidate who was at the top of the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) organ recipient list the transplant team was able to arrange a four-way swap using a living donor matching system. In effect, all four recipients ultimately received compatible kidneys, but they were from donors they had never met.

"More than one-third of living kidney donor-recipient pairs are not compatible," said John Friedewald, MD, transplant nephrologist at Northwestern Memorial. "Paired exchange programs have the potential to dramatically increase the number of patients that receive transplants and reduce time spent on the waiting list."

Thursday's surgery crossed ethnic, gender, racial and language lines and brought together eight individuals that otherwise would never have met, but now are connected for life. Patients ranged in age from 25-65 years and hailed from Chicago and neighboring suburbs, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico.

"The diverse patient population that we transplanted in this four-way exchange speaks to the larger transplant community and the potential for individuals, regardless of background, to come together in order to donate life by helping others receive the organs they need," said Dr. Leventhal.

Doug Penrod, the Good Samaritan, or altruistic donor, is a Northwestern Memorial employee and 17-year member of the transplant team. He decided to donate his kidney blindly after his intentions to donate to a friend fell through. "After agreeing to donate my kidney once, and then not being able to, I felt I should still go through with the surgery and help out someone else in need," commented Penrod. "I've seen firsthand the good a transplant can do, and I know the risks to the donor are very minimal in both the short and long term. It was the right thing to do."

One of the recipients, Pierre Kattar Sr., reflected on his surgery, "After waiting so long, I'm thankful to have finally received a kidney." Kattar Sr. unsuccessfully tried to find a kidney match three times prior to Thursday's surgery. "Dialysis is draining, I felt washed out after every session and had no quality of life," he added.

Another recipient, Niral Patel, was incompatible with his donor due to a positive crossmatch. Northwestern Memorial is one of two hospitals in Illinois and only a handful nationwide that offer the capability to transplant ABO, blood type incompatible, or crossmatch incompatible donors and recipients. Transplant physicians desensitized Patel's blood before the transplant took place through a process called plasmapheresis, which cleans the antibodies in the blood so they do not attack the new kidney after the surgery. Patel went through several plasmapheresis treatments in the weeks preceding surgery, as well as additional treatments afterwards to ensure that the transplanted organ is not rejected. "I was able to find a kidney, and it took seven other people coming together to make this happen. It's clearly a miracle," commented Patel after the surgery.

"We are proud to have achieved this milestone and are committed to building our paired exchange program further," said Michael Abecassis, MD, MBA, chief of the division of organ transplantation at Northwestern Memorial Hospital. "These programs provide more options for those in need of a transplant, which means more lives saved."

About Northwestern Memorial Hospital

Northwestern Memorial Hospital is one of the country's premier academic medical centers and is the primary teaching hospital of the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. Northwestern Memorial and its Prentice Women's Hospital and Stone Institute of Psychiatry have 897 beds along with 1,424 affiliated physicians and 6,464 employees. Northwestern Memorial is recognized for providing state-of-the-art patient care and exemplary clinical and surgical advancements in the areas of cardiothoracic and vascular care, gastroenterology, neurology and neurosurgery, oncology, organ and bone marrow transplantation, and women's health.

Northwestern Memorial received the prestigious 2005 National Quality Health Care Award and is listed in eight specialties in U.S. News & World Report's 2007 rankings for "America's Best Hospitals." For seven years running, Northwestern Memorial has been rated among the nation's "100 Best Companies for Working Mothers" by Working Mother magazine and has been chosen by Chicagoans for more than a decade as their "most preferred hospital" according to the National Research Corporation's annual survey. Northwestern Memorial carries the Magnet status designation in nursing, the highest recognition possible for patient care and nursing excellence.

First Call Analyst:
FCMN Contact:

Source: Northwestern Memorial Hospital

CONTACT: Amy Dobrozsi of Northwestern Memorial Hospital,
+1-312-926-5900, adobrozs@nmh.org

Web Site:

http://www.nmh.org/

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Profile: Transplant News