Smiths Medical secures new supply contracts

Smiths Medical, though its North American Deltec business making specialist infusion pumps, has won a major supply contract with US healthcare group, Gentiva Health Services. It will result in Deltec will become Gentiva's single preferred provider of pumps for drug delivery. For Deltec this represents the third important supply agreement signed this year, which together are expected to lead to the supply of more than 5,000 pumps over the next five years.

Under the latest partnership agreement, Gentiva has selected three of Deltec's pumps to provide specialty pharmaceutical therapies to patients with a broad range of conditions, including haemophilia, pulmonary hypertension, infectious disease, chronic pain and cancer. Nasdaq-listed Gentiva (GTIV), provides specialty pharmaceutical and home health care services in the United States for customers that include managed care organisations, employers, governmental agencies, hospitals and individuals.

In addition to the Gentiva agreement, Deltec has recently signed a five-year contract with Broadlane Inc., a healthcare supply chain specialist, to provide ambulatory infusion pumps and related disposables to 572 acute care hospitals and 2,335 sub-acute healthcare facilities which are customers of Broadlane.

Deltec has also been awarded a contract (to June 2005), by Premier, Inc, one of the leading strategic alliances of hospitals and healthcare systems covering more than 1,800 hospitals and hundreds of other sites of care, in all 50 US states. The contract calls for Deltec ambulatory infusion pumps and related disposables and allows Premier to achieve a standardised product range for infusion treatment.

Based in St. Paul, Minnesota, Deltec is one of the world's leading manufacturers and distributors of infusion therapy products, including ambulatory infusion pumps and large volume infusion pumps.

ENDS