Putting Their Best Foot Forward

SINGAPORE, June 11 /PRNewswire/ -- Growth consulting company, Frost & Sullivan hosted the 2007 Excellence in Healthcare Awards on June 8. The event was composed to honour the region's finest players in the healthcare and research industry -- companies that have performed par excellence and demonstrated best practices. These companies have transcended with their outstanding leadership and outshined with their innovations and growth. This was a first ever award presentation held in Southeast Asia that covered the major areas in healthcare industry. This event was attended by creme de la creme of the various organizations.

28 companies from Medical Devices, Healthcare IT, Medical Imaging, Drug Discovery, Biotechnology and Clinical Diagnostics background were awarded the prestigious Frost & Sullivan awards at the Shangri-La Hotel, Singapore. Also present was Frost & Sullivan's Senior Partner and Member of Board, Mr. Aroop Zutshi.

"These companies have been the leaders in identifying emerging market trends and developing truly creative products to meet the challenges faced in today's competitive world," expressed Ms. Reenita Das, Vice President of Frost & Sullivan's Asia Pacific Healthcare Practice. "The companies that are receiving these awards ultimately create technologies that improve global health. We are honoured to recognize these contributions and hope that this will inspire others to develop such innovations in the future," she added.

The 2007 Excellence in Healthcare Awards was aligned to appreciate significant contributions to the society and global health. "Breathtaking advances in medical science and medical technology have been made in the last few years. We succeeded in decoding the human genome, learned the programming code for major diseases and developed miraculous drug treatments," Das articulated.

The evening commenced on a high note when 2 local companies bagged the awards in the Medical Device category. HealthSTATS International was Singapore's first homegrown technology driven medical device company that was conferred the Asia Pacific Monitoring Devices Technology of the Year Award. "This latest Award further reinforces the recognition and high regard for the 'Made in Singapore' tag in the realm of biotechnology and life sciences. We are indeed honoured with this accolade for HealthSTATS' BPro, especially when our vision was to make ambulatory blood pressure monitoring highly accessible and affordable for the man in the street -- the innovation behind the BPro makes this possible," said Dr. Ting Choon Meng, Chairman and CEO, HealthSTATS International, and a medical doctor who spent the past six years developing the BPro.

The other local company was Transmedic Pte Ltd was awarded the Asia Pacific Medical Device Distributor Company of the Year Award.

The momentum of the evening built towards the end when the awards of the highest recognition were announced. Siemens Medical was awarded the Medical Imaging Company of the Year Award. This was their fourth award for the night.

Quintiles Transnational defended their Multinational Clinical Research Outsourcing Company of the Year which was presented to them last year and this was their third award for the evening.

Frost & Sullivan had a similar event last year that focused the Clinical Research Outsourcing segment.

Frost & Sullivan follows a rigorous measurement based methodology to select and short list leading companies in Asia Pacific for each Award category. After which, the short listed companies will be evaluated based on actual market performance indicators. Some measurement parameters used in conducting the detailed evaluation of each short listed company based on actual market performance indicators include revenue growth, breadth of services and solutions, market share in specific category and growth in market share.

  The distinguished panel of Judges for this year's Award ceremony was:

  1.  Prof David A. Stringer -- Senior Consultant, National University
       Hospital
  2.  A/Prof Martti T. Tammi -- President, Association for Medical and
       Bio-Informatics, Singapore
  3.  Micheal Ong -- President, Singapore Society of Radiographers
  4.  Fong Choon Khin -- Group Chief Technology Officer, Singapore Health
       Services Pte Ltd (SingHealth)
  5.  Tham Wai Chung Linus -- Chief Information Officer of the National
       Healthcare Group of Singapore
  6.  Dr. Cheong Yuet-Meng -- Regional Director of Clinical Operations in
       Pfizer, Asia
  7.  A/Prof. Wang Shih-chang -- Head of the Department, Diagnostic
       Radiology, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine at NUS
  8.  Mr. Wong Yew Sin -- Senior Advisor, Health Products Regulation Group,
       Health Sciences Authority (HSA)
  9.  A/P Lim Chu Sing, Daniel -- Director of the Biomedical &
       Pharmaceutical Engineering Cluster, Nanyang Technological University
  10. Dr. Winston E.H. Lim -- President, Singapore Society of Radiographers
  11. Yeoh Keat Chuan -- Executive Director, Singapore Economic Development
       Board
  12. Jean Thoh Jing Herng -- Director, Singapore Bio-Innovations of America
       Inc
  13. Matthias Mueser -- Medical Director, Head of Clinical Development,
       MERCK
  14. Darunee Edwards -- Deputy Director, Thailand National Center for
       Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (BIOTEC)
  15. Dr. Tanit Changthavorn -- Intellectual Property Specialist National
       Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology (BIOTEC)

Sterling HRConsulting is the official sponsor for the 2007 Frost & Sullivan Excellence in Healthcare Awards. Media partners include Medical Matters Asia, Greener Grass Communications LLP, Marshall Cavendish Business Information Pte Ltd, 1st Phase Operations and PharmaAsia.

Frost & Sullivan congratulates the 28 proud recipients of 2007 Excellence in Healthcare Awards.

  AWARD TITLE                                    AWARD RECIPIENT
  Medical Devices
  Upcoming Medical Device Company
   of the Year (Taiwan)                          Apex Biotechnology Limited
  Upcoming Medical Device Company
   of the Year (South Korea)                     Changeui Medical
  Upcoming Medical Device Company
   of the Year (Australia)                       USCOM Limited
  Product Innovation of the Year
   (Asia Pacific)                                Solco Biomedical
  Technology Innovation of the
   Year (Asia Pacific)                           Mars Medical Products
  Monitoring Devices Technology
   of the Year (Asia Pacific)                    HealthStats International
  Orthopedic Device Company of
   the Year (Asia Pacific)                       Zimmer
  Medical Device Distributor of
   the Year (Asia Pacific)                       Transmedic Pte Ltd


  Clinical Diagnostics
  Niche Clinical Diagnostics
   Company of the Year
   (Asia Pacific)                                BioMerieux
  Clinical Diagnostics Technology
   Innovation of the Year
   (Asia Pacific)                                Roche Diagnostics
  Clinical Diagnostics Product
   Line Leadership of the Year
   (Asia Pacific)                                Siemens Medical Solution
                                                  Diagnostics


  Biotechnology
  Agricultural Company of the
   Year (Thailand)                               Betagro
  Company of the Year (Thailand)                 TheraVitae

  Drug Discovery
  Emerging Company of the Year
   Award (Asia Pacific)                          Icon Clinical Research
  Customer Service Leadership of
   the Year Award (Asia Pacific)                 Quintiles Transnational
                                                  Corp.
  Multinational Laboratory
   Services Provider of the Year
   Award (Asia Pacific)                          Quintiles Transnational
                                                  Corp.
  Asian Clinical Services
   Provider of the Year Award
   (Asia Pacific)                                Apex Clinical Research


  Healthcare IT
  Product Innovation of the Year
   Award (Asia Pacific)                          MatrixView Technologies
  Emerging Company of the Year
   Award (Asia Pacific)                          IBA Health
  Company of the Year Award --
   Enterprise                                    IBM Life Sciences
  Company of the Year Award --
   Clinical                                      Siemens Medical


  Medical Imaging
  Product Innovation of the Year
   Award (Asia Pacific)                          Zonare Medical Systems
  Technology Leadership of the
   Year Award (Asia Pacific)                     Siemens Medical
  Radiology PACS of the Year
   Award ( Asia Pacific)                         AGFA Healthcare


  Best of the Best
  Cardiovascular Device Company
   of the Year (Asia Pacific)                    Medtronic International
  Clinical Diagnostics Company
   of the Year (Asia Pacific)                    Abbott Diagnostics
  Multinational Clinical Services
   Provider of the Year Award
   (Asia Pacific)                                Quintiles Transnational
                                                  Corp.
  Medical Imaging Company of the
   Year Award (Asia Pacific)                     Siemens Medical


  About the Frost & Sullivan Best Practice Awards

The Frost & Sullivan Best Practices team of industry experts presents awards to companies demonstrating best practices in a variety of regional and global markets. These Best Practices Awards recognize the superior planning and execution of product launches, strategic alliances, distributing strategies, technological innovations, customer service and mergers & acquisitions. A host of other crucial marketing factors such as leadership. strategy, service, innovation, integration and development are also recognized. For more information please visit http://www.healthcare-awards.com/

About Frost & Sullivan

Frost & Sullivan, a global growth consulting company, has been partnering with clients to support the development of innovative strategies for more than 40 years. The company's industry expertise integrates growth consulting, growth partnership services and corporate management training to identify and develop opportunities. Frost & Sullivan serves an extensive clientele that includes Global 1000 companies, emerging companies, and the investment community, by providing comprehensive industry coverage that reflects a unique global perspective and combines ongoing analysis of markets, technologies, econometrics, and demographics. For more information, visit http://www.frost.com/

  Media Contact
  Jasminder Kaur
  Corporate Communications
  P: 65 6890 0937
  F: 65 6890 0988
  E: jkaur@frost.com