Confirma And GE Healthcare Expand Strategic Partnership

for MRI, announced today that Confirma and GE Healthcare, the $17 billion global leader in medical imaging and information systems, have expanded their strategic partnership to offer Confirma service to GE Healthcare customers with CADstream. Under the new agreement, Confirma will offer program consultation, experienced applications training, customizable educational courses, and marketing and reimbursement consultation to GE Healthcare customers with CADstream, the standard in CAD for breast MRI.

Since July 2004, Confirma and GE Healthcare have partnered to bring the industry’s leading MRI technologies for breast cancer detection to healthcare providers. Under the agreement, GE Healthcare will continue to distribute CADstream to its MRI customers while Confirma will install, train and support CADstream. The expanded relationship marks significant progress in their mutual goal to advance MRI technology for breast cancer detection. Currently, over 200 CADstream systems have been installed at GE Healthcare customer sites worldwide.

“As physicians begin to offer breast MRI to their patients, there is increasing demand for a truly complete solution. In addition to providing excellent imaging and intervention capabilities, productive workflow and interpretation efficiency are critical to a complete offering. CADstream has been a key component of our solution for the past several years,” said David Handler, General Manager, MR Global Marketing, GE Healthcare. “We look forward to continuing to advance breast MRI together under the new arrangement.”

“This amendment demonstrates our commitment to GE Healthcare and its customers,” said Wayne Wager, President and CEO, Confirma. “We will offer customers expertise and support that continue to improve confidence in breast MRI.”

About Confirma Customer Support

Program Consultation and Experienced Applications

Confirma’s experienced customer service team provides expert consultation for early and advanced breast MRI programs. Additionally, Confirma’s customer support team provides comprehensive training at the customer’s site.

Using remote technology, Confirma’s customer service team can instantly access CADstream systems for service and updates. Confirma expert support is available via telephone 24 hours per day.

Customizable Educational Courses

Confirma supports a variety of CME-accredited breast MRI with CAD educational programs, including didactic and hands-on courses, online case reviews and fellowships led by experienced faculty.

Marketing and Reimbursement Consultation

Confirma offers marketing and reimbursement consultation to customers, including development of direct mail, physician referral brochures and press releases. Reimbursement consultation includes recommendations on program development, coding and appeals.

Advances in Breast MRI

Confirma and CADstream help imaging centers improve confidence in MRI and meet the rapidly-increasing demand for MRI studies. Recently-published clinical studies support breast MRI for improved breast cancer detection and in March 2007, the American Cancer Society started recommending that women with a 20-25 percent or greater lifetime risk of breast cancer undergo an annual MRI in addition to mammography.

It is becoming increasingly important to improve the analysis of these complex, time-consuming studies. CADstream is advancing breast MRI by improving efficiency of study interpretation and reporting. The system automates analysis, reporting and interventional planning of studies and promotes standardization with the incorporation of the American College of Radiology’s Breast Imaging Reporting and Data System (BI-RADS®), which guides the breast cancer diagnosis and decision-making process. Confirma’s next-generation version of CADstream for breast MRI, launched at the RSNA 2007 meeting, includes a customizable BI-RADS®-centric user interface that accommodates a variety of experience levels.

CADstream was first introduced at the RSNA meeting in 2002 and is currently in use by thousands of physicians at hundreds of breast MRI programs around the world.

The July 2007 issue of Radiology published research from the University of Washington and Seattle Cancer Care Alliance indicating that CAD for breast MRI may improve standardization, as well as the analysis of benign and malignant lesions. CADstream was the only CAD system used in this study.

About GE Healthcare

GE Healthcare provides transformational medical technologies that will shape a new age of patient care. GE Healthcare’s expertise in medical imaging and information technologies, medical diagnostics, patient monitoring systems, disease research, drug discovery and biopharmaceuticals is dedicated to detecting disease earlier and tailoring treatment for individual patients. GE Healthcare offers a broad range of services to improve productivity in healthcare and enable healthcare providers to better diagnose, treat and manage patients with conditions such as cancer, Alzheimer’s and cardiovascular diseases. GE Healthcare is a $17 billion unit of General Electric Company (NYSE:GE) that is headquartered in the United Kingdom. Worldwide, GE Healthcare employs more than 46,000 people committed to serving healthcare professionals and their patients in more than 100 countries. For more information about GE Healthcare, visit www.gehealthcare.com.

About Confirma, Inc.

Confirma develops and markets application-specific CAD systems and accessories for magnetic resonance imaging studies (MRI). CADstream is the standard in CAD for MRI, with more than 800 installations and 2,500 users worldwide. Confirma’s approach to CAD is unique: CADstream is developed with specific tools for each application in order to streamline workflow and standardize study analysis. CADstream automates the analysis and interventional guidance of MRI studies, providing higher quality imaging studies, lower costs for radiology practices and improved communication tools for physicians and patients. In its initial application, CADstream was developed to assist in the analysis, interventional guidance and reporting of breast MRI studies. CADstream can be integrated into any workflow scenario, and is compatible with all MRI scanners and PACS.

Confirma supports professional development in MRI and CAD technology through its extensive medical education program, including a newly launched continuing medical education (CME) program for breast MRI through the International Center for Postgraduate Medical Education (ICPME).

Confirma has established partnerships with companies including GE Healthcare, Philips Medical Systems, Bayer HealthCare, Medipattern, Vital Images and Carestream Health. Confirma has partnered with hundreds of imaging centers and corporate partners worldwide since 2003, helping develop more standardized, high performance breast MRI programs that deliver premium patient care. Confirma Europe GmbH opened operations in Berlin to further develop the European market. Frost & Sullivan recently recognized Confirma with the 2006 Industry Innovation and Advancement Award for the U.S. CAD market. For more information, visit www.confirma.com or call 877-811-2356.

GE and Lilly Announce Research Collaboration to Co-Develop Molecular In Vitro Diagnostics for Cancer Treatments

GE Global Research, the General Electric Company’s (NYSE:GE) centralized research and development organization, and GE Healthcare today announced a three-year collaborative research agreement with Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE:LLY) to discover and develop advanced in vitro diagnostic assays that may predict cancer treatment response to targeted therapies.

In addition to Lilly’s existing chemotherapy agents, Lilly is developing targeted cancer therapeutics, which are now in both early and late stage clinical development. GE is developing advanced multiplexed tissue-based assays and image analysis tools that can measure multiple biological pathways. The goal of this collaboration is to discover key protein and gene signatures that will predict the likelihood that a medication will be effective in treating certain cancers. Once identified the signatures can then be used to pre-select patients who are good candidates for the targeted therapy.

“The co-development of diagnostics and therapeutics is a major strategy of GE Healthcare’s “Early Health” vision, and our collaboration with Lilly and our expansion into in vitro diagnostics is right in line with this strategy,“ said, Dr. Michael Montalto, head of Molecular Imaging and Diagnostics Advanced Technologies for Global Research. “The combination of diagnostics and therapeutics is opening new doors in the fight against cancer and other life-threatening diseases. Through the application of molecular and cell biology to understanding disease, we can provide pharmaceutical companies with more advanced tools to develop more optimal drug therapies for cancer patients.”

“Our collaboration with GE complements Lilly’s research and development strategy of tailored therapeutics, or in other words, finding the right dose of the right medication at the right time for patients. Through our collaboration with GE Healthcare and GE Global Research, we hope to identify biomarkers for two of our targeted cancer therapeutic agents by examining patient tissues in order to determine which patients are most likely to respond to the medications and just as importantly which are not,” said Dr. Richard Gaynor, M.D., vice president, cancer research and global oncology platform for Eli Lilly and Company.

As the world becomes more educated and advanced in molecular medicine, the healthcare industry is experiencing a growing convergence of therapeutics and diagnostics. Through the use of molecular diagnostic tools that can discover key protein or gene signatures, pharmaceutical companies can begin to use that information to determine which patients are most likely to respond to a particular medication based on their particular genetic makeup.

The agreement between GE and Lilly will provide GE with access to clinical tissue samples from unidentified patients enrolled in Lilly’s clinical trials. In turn, Lilly will have access to GE’s advanced technologies in automated tissue-based image analysis and molecular reagents. These tools can be used during drug development to aid Lilly in evaluating the effectiveness of their drug candidates and potentially select patients for future trials.

In addition to helping Lilly identify patients for future trials, the diagnostic tools GE is providing also have the potential to greatly reduce the time and cost of cancer drug development.

The collaboration with Lilly is consistent with GE Healthcare’s Early Health Vision, which is about transforming healthcare delivery from a focus on treating late disease to a focus on adopting an Early Health model of care – where prevention, pre-disease detection, and early diagnosis are the key drivers. GE Healthcare has a strong portfolio of in vivo diagnostic imaging technologies and molecular contrast agents to assist with the detection and diagnosis of cancer, and expanding this strength toward in vitro diagnostics is a natural extension of this strategy.

About GE Global Research

GE Global Research is one of the world's most diversified industrial research organizations, providing innovative technology for all of GE’s businesses. Global Research has been the cornerstone of GE technology for more than 100 years, and is now focused on developing breakthrough innovations in areas such as molecular medicine, alternative energy, nanotechnology, advanced propulsion, and security technologies. GE Global Research is headquartered in Niskayuna, N.Y. and has facilities in Bangalore, India; Shanghai, China; and Munich, Germany. Visit Global Research at www.ge.com/research.

About GE Healthcare

GE Healthcare provides transformational medical technologies and services that are shaping a new age of patient care. Our expertise in medical imaging and information technologies, medical diagnostics, patient monitoring systems, performance improvement, drug discovery, and biopharmaceutical manufacturing technologies is helping clinicians around the world re-imagine new ways to predict, diagnose, inform, treat and monitor disease, so patients can live their lives to the fullest.

GE Healthcare's broad range of products and services enable healthcare providers to better diagnose and treat cancer, heart disease, neurological diseases and other conditions earlier. Our vision for the future is to enable a new "early health" model of care focused on earlier diagnosis, pre-symptomatic disease detection and disease prevention. Headquartered in the United Kingdom, GE Healthcare is a $17 billion unit of General Electric Company (NYSE: GE). Worldwide, GE Healthcare employs more than 46,000 people committed to serving healthcare professionals and their patients in more than 100 countries. For more information about GE Healthcare, visit our website at www.gehealthcare.com.

Headquartered in the United Kingdom, GE Healthcare is a US$17 billion unit of General Electric Company (NYSE: GE). Worldwide, GE Healthcare employs more than 46,000 people committed to serving healthcare professionals and their patients in more than 100 countries. For more information about GE Healthcare, visit our website at www.gehealthcare.com.

About Lilly

Lilly, a leading innovation-driven corporation, is developing a growing portfolio of first-in-class and best-in-class pharmaceutical products by applying the latest research from its own worldwide laboratories and from collaborations with eminent scientific organizations. Headquartered in Indianapolis, Ind., Lilly provides answers - through medicines and information for some of the world's most urgent medical needs. Additional information about Lilly is available at www.lilly.com.

U.S. FDA Approves GE Healthcare’s Newest Mobile Mammography System for Improved Access to Breast Care

GE Healthcare, a unit of General Electric Company (NYSE: GE), today announced that it has received U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval for its new mobile mammography product that will improve access to breast cancer screening for millions of women around the world. The mobile Senographe® Essential is built on the company’s Senographe Essential platform, the next-generation of GE’s proven Senographe Full Field Digital Mammography systems.

As medical organizations continue to offer full-field digital mammography in a mobile setting, GE Healthcare’s newest mobile unit will feature the largest digital detector in the mammography market, advanced ergonomic design for the technologist, optimized patient comfort and seamless workflow connectivity. The foundation of the Senographe Essential imaging excellence is GE’s advanced digital detector, which delivers the industry's highest Detective Quantum Efficiency (DQE) - the standard for quantifying digital X-ray image quality - at low doses.

“GE’s goal is to enhance breast care for women worldwide and bring this technology to those who otherwise would not have access to it,” said David Caumartin, general manager of Global Mammography for GE Healthcare. “GE offers customers the broadest portfolio when it comes to breast imaging and the new mobile Essential will be the top of the line mobile product in the market featuring all the proven advantages of our Senographe platform.”

First Mobile Essential in Seattle

A study published in May 2007 by the National Cancer Institute found that use of mammography screening had dropped four percent from 2000 to 2005. In 2005, only 70 percent of women surveyed for the study reported getting an annual mammogram. During the same timeframe, among women 50-64, the group most at risk for breast cancer, screening was down 7 percent, from 79 percent to 72 percent.

According to the American Cancer Society, mammography rates in Washington state are also below the national average. In a 2005-2006 study, only 56.3 percent of women 40-64, who are most at risk for breast cancer, were screened. The national average was 60.5 percent. To combat the low numbers and to improve the overall health of women in the area, Connie Lehman, M.D., Ph.D., director of radiology at the Seattle Cancer Care Alliance and professor and vice chair of radiology, section head of breast imaging, at the University of Washington School of Medicine, will take an active approach toward improving breast cancer screening rates.

Courtesy of a month-long fundraising campaign sponsored by the Seattle Division of Safeway Inc. and supported by its employees and customers along with a corporate grant from the Safeway Foundation to acquire a van for the mobile Essential unit, Lehman will be able to hold breast-screening clinics at locations around the Seattle region. Eventually Lehman will be scheduling visits to cities throughout western Washington.

“Women living in the state of Washington have higher rates of breast cancer compared to the rest of the country,” said Lehman. “And yet, compared to the rest of the country, we also have fewer women receiving regular screening mammography. We have an opportunity with this program to provide more women the opportunity to be screened with the latest technology for early detection of breast cancer. This is our way of removing some of the barriers preventing women from having screening mammograms. We are delighted to partner with GE and Safeway to make a difference for women and their families in our community.”

About GE Healthcare

GE Healthcare provides transformational medical technologies and services that are shaping a new age of patient care. Our expertise in medical imaging and information technologies, medical diagnostics, patient monitoring systems, performance improvement, drug discovery, and biopharmaceutical manufacturing technologies is helping clinicians around the world re-imagine new ways to predict, diagnose, inform, treat and monitor disease, so patients can live their lives to the fullest.

GE Healthcare's broad range of products and services enable healthcare providers to better diagnose and treat cancer, heart disease, neurological diseases and other conditions earlier. Our vision for the future is to enable a new "early health" model of care focused on earlier diagnosis, pre-symptomatic disease detection and disease prevention. Headquartered in the United Kingdom, GE Healthcare is a $17 billion unit of General Electric Company (NYSE: GE). Worldwide, GE Healthcare employs more than 46,000 people committed to serving healthcare professionals and their patients in more than 100 countries. For more information about GE Healthcare, visit our website at www.gehealthcare.com.

GE Healthcare and Sprint Deliver Enhanced Wireless Connectivity to Hospitals Across North America

Uninterrupted communication within a hospital is a requirement for physicians, patients and visitors and is essential to quality care. Sprint (NYSE: S) and GE Healthcare announced today their collaboration to provide in-building wireless communications services to hospitals in North America. Patients, clinicians and hospital visitors will benefit from secure, reliable voice and data communications, supporting an environment conducive to higher levels of patient care.

Historically, the use of mobile phones in hospitals has been limited due to unreliable wireless support and the risk of interference between wireless phones and medical equipment. Using the new combined offering, physicians and caregivers will be able to communicate amongst each other and securely access patient information from almost anywhere in the facility.

The new in-building cellular communications network from GE Healthcare and Sprint’s Custom Network Solution (CNS) team leverages GE’s CARESCAPE™ Enterprise Access™, a single, universal wireless platform powered by MobileAccess, and includes Sprint handsets. This solution will provide hospitals with a comprehensive platform for voice and data communications over secure cellular, Wi-Fi and telemetry infrastructure that requires only one installation. Using the combined offering, clinicians, patients and hospital visitors can communicate more efficiently and with ease.

“Sprint CNS provides scalable coverage and a high-capacity platform for wireless voice and data services on the Sprint National Network and Nextel National Network, enhancing the mobility and productivity of staff at hospitals and other businesses,” says Darlene Braunschweig, vice president of CNS at Sprint. “We are very excited to partner with GE Healthcare to provide differentiated and innovative mobile solutions that are critical for every business. This new solution facilitates constant communication of secure information amongst hospital staff; an aspect very critical to patient care.”

GE CARESCAPE Enterprise Access, built on the MobileAccess technology platform, enables critical patient data to be securely coordinated, managed and distributed without the type of communications failures, interference or interruptions that can be caused by un-integrated systems. It is designed to transparently incorporate new systems and services without the need to install parallel, standalone infrastructures. CARESCAPE Enterprise Access is part of GE Healthcare’s CARESCAPE portfolio, an integrated suite of patient monitoring devices, communications networks and IT systems designed to transform traditional patient monitoring data into clinical intelligence. The CARESCAPE portfolio, released in May 2007, reflects a new approach to patient monitoring that provides clinicians with the opportunity to act earlier in the care process when compared to traditional patient monitoring and communication methods.

“The CARESCAPE portfolio represents our commitment to providing customers with a wide range of products and services that work together to help clinicians improve patient care,” said Munesh Makhija, General Manager of Systems and Wireless for GE Healthcare’s Monitoring Solutions business. “Our agreement with Sprint reflects this commitment. By harnessing the power of in-building cellular communications, hospitals will be able to offer secure, reliable voice and data communications throughout a campus, which can support improved communication and ultimately, patient outcomes.”

ABOUT GE HEALTHCARE

GE Healthcare provides transformational medical technologies and services that are shaping a new age of patient care. Our expertise in medical imaging and information technologies, medical diagnostics, patient monitoring systems, performance improvement, drug discovery and biopharmaceutical manufacturing technologies is helping clinicians around the world re-imagine new ways to predict, diagnose, inform, treat and monitor disease, so patients can live their lives to the fullest.

GE Healthcare's broad range of products and services enable healthcare providers to better diagnose and treat cancer, heart disease, neurological diseases and other conditions earlier. Our vision for the future is to enable a new "early health" model of care focused on earlier diagnosis, pre-symptomatic disease detection and disease prevention. Headquartered in the United Kingdom, GE Healthcare is a $17 billion unit of General Electric Company (NYSE: GE). Worldwide, GE Healthcare employs more than 46,000 people committed to serving healthcare professionals and their patients in more than 100 countries. For more information about GE Healthcare, visit our website at www.gehealthcare.com.

ABOUT SPRINT NEXTEL

Sprint CNS is a leader in providing enhanced in-building and campus-wide network consulting, integration and fixed mobile convergence solutions. Sprint designs, deploys and maintains wireless networks and mobility solutions that deliver the productivity and efficiency of voice and data communications to virtually anywhere a business and their employees need them. Sprint’s CNS team offers 24/7 technical support and manages all stages of the customer deployment process, from the initial requirements assessment through installation and deployment with consultant-grade methods, procedures and tools. For more information about Sprint CNS, please visit www.sprint.com/cns.

Sprint Nextel offers a comprehensive range of wireless and wireline communications services bringing the freedom of mobility to consumers, businesses and government users. Sprint Nextel is widely recognized for developing, engineering and deploying innovative technologies, including two robust wireless networks serving 54 million customers at the end of the second quarter 2007; industry-leading mobile data services; instant national and international walkie-talkie capabilities; and a global Tier 1 Internet backbone. For more information, visit www.sprint.com.

GE Healthcare Financial Services Closes $3.3 Million Deal with BioStorage Technologies

GE Healthcare Financial Services has provided a $3.3 million lease line of credit to BioStorage Technologies (BST). The Indianapolis, IN.-based company is a worldwide leader in short-term and long-term biomaterials storage, sample management and cold chain logistics. They will use the loan to support additional BST capital acquisitions.

In the near future, BST plans to purchase additional walk-in and stand-alone freezer units, back-up generators, liquid nitrogen tanks and other equipment to meet growing customer demands. In addition, BST will continue to build out its information technology infrastructure and software development needs.

“Having a strategic partner like GE Healthcare Financial Services has given us the financial flexibility to grow and execute our vision for the future,” said F. John Mills, M.D., Ph.D., BST’s chairman and chief executive officer. “GE HFS’ focus on helping us solve our financing needs allows us to create a broader leadership position in the drug research and development market.”

“GE Healthcare Financial Services is very pleased to have entered into a long-term partnership with BioStorage Technologies and we are focused on providing financial services that help them grow,” said Anthony Storino, senior managing director for GE Healthcare Financial Services’ life science finance group. “Our industry expertise and financial strength enabled us to quickly structure a tailored financing solution that recognized BioStorage Technologies’ current position in the market and will grow with their business.”

About GE Healthcare Financial Services

GE Healthcare Financial Services is a provider of capital, financial solutions, and related services for the global healthcare market. With over $16 billion of capital committed to the healthcare industry, GE Healthcare Financial Services offers a full range of capabilities from equipment financing and real estate financing to working capital lending, vendor programs, and practice acquisition financing. With its knowledge of all aspects of healthcare from hospitals and long-term care facilities to physicians’ practices and life sciences, GE Healthcare Financial Services works with customers to create tailored financial solutions that help them improve their productivity and profitability. For more information, visit http://www.gehealthcarefinance.com

GE Healthcare to Supply Full Field Digital Mammography Units (FFDM) to Breastcheck in Ireland, One of the First Countries in Europe to Go Digital

GE Healthcare, world leader in digital mammography technology today announces supplying Full Field Digital Mammography (FFDM) units to BreastCheck – part of the Irish National Cancer Screening Service. Ireland to become, one of the first countries in Europe to entirely use digital mammography for breast screening services provided by BreastCheck. Out of a total of 29 digital mammography systems installed across the country, 13 GE Healthcare Senographe™ Essential full-field digital mammography (FFDM) units will be installed, with 6 of the 13 systems being mobile units.

Breast cancer is the second leading cause of cancer deaths in the world and more than 1.3 million people annually are diagnosed with breast cancer, according to the World Health Organization. Industry experts believe that the five-year survival rate in cases of early detection of breast cancer is 97 percent.

According to the National Cancer Registry Office Ireland, the most common cancer in women is breast cancer, which accounts for 28% of all cancers in Ireland. Breast cancer is particularly virulent and 18.5% of all cancer related deaths in women in Ireland are due to breast cancer.

For Ireland, GE Healthcare’s advanced mammography technology will mean a shift in the reach of medical care allowing doctors to increase patient workflow, take medical care to patients in even the most remote areas of Ireland. The main objective is to increase the attendance rate of women invited for screening in order to improve early detection of breast cancer.

Since 1965, GE Healthcare has been a leader in the field of mammography and worldwide more than 2,200 systems have been installed. Last year GE introduced the Senographe™ Essential making this the third generation of digital systems since 1999, with a recent 200th install. The Senographe Essential has a large field of view which means it can accommodate a great diversity of breast shapes and sizes. Large breasts can now be imaged in one view thereby increasing speed of examination and better patient comfort.

It is estimated that more than 25 million women and breast cancer patients come across GE Healthcare technologies, based on the number of systems installed and products used around the world

“At GE Healthcare our vision of ‘early health’ and our advanced technologies allow us to support clinicians around the world to diagnose disease quicker, with more detail, increased image quality, and at an earlier stage. As such, our Senographe Essential system allows a woman go through her screening mammogram, diagnostic work-ups, and a biopsy, if needed, all on the same system.” said David Caumartin, General Manager, Global Mammography, GE Healthcare.

“We are very pleased to work with GE Healthcare as a supplier of the latest mammography technologies. Aside from its proven high image quality, the reduced time required by our radiographers to carry out the mammogram and review the images was also a considerable advantage when choosing the Senographe Essential. The robustness of GE Healthcare’s mobile unit was also something put to the test for vibrations impact during 8000 km across Ireland and the UK. Radiographers concluded positively on the digital equipment and workflow in the new mobile environment,” said Niall Phelan, Chief Physicist, BreastCheck.

According to the OECD1, 75% of patients diagnosed with breast cancer at Stage 0 are said to have close to 100% survival rate, while at Stage 4 the survival rates drop between 20% to 40%. In addition, treatment cost is six times more when diagnosis is made at Stage 4 than at Stage 0. As such, these statistics clearly show how critically important it is to have breast cancer detected earlier, not only due to financial savings but also due to greater longevity of women.

“We are confident that our 6 GE mobile units will assist us in bringing the screening service to women across a wider geographical area as our breast screening programme expands nationwide” added Phelan.

“As we continue our advancements in the fight against breast cancer we are very proud to contribute through our advanced medical technologies to screening programmes such as the one in Ireland. Serving as a cornerstone for the future of digital mammography, the Senographe Essential’s ergonomics and industry-unique capabilities are proving beneficial and convenient to radiologists. GE Healthcare’s Senographe Essential mobile unit will also aim to optimize doctors’ utilization by bringing required services to the demand of diverse populations and to remote areas” added Caumartin.

1 http://www.oecd.org

ABOUT GE HEALTHCARE

GE Healthcare provides transformational medical technologies and services that are shaping a new age of patient care. Our expertise in medical imaging and information technologies, medical diagnostics, patient monitoring systems, performance improvement, drug discovery, and biopharmaceutical manufacturing technologies is helping clinicians around the world re-imagine new ways to predict, diagnose, inform, treat and monitor disease, so patients can live their lives to the fullest.

GE Healthcare's broad range of products and services enable healthcare providers to better diagnose and treat cancer, heart disease, neurological diseases and other conditions earlier. Our vision for the future is to enable a new "early health" model of care focused on earlier diagnosis, pre-symptomatic disease detection and disease prevention. Headquartered in the United Kingdom, GE Healthcare is a $17 billion unit of General Electric Company (NYSE:GE). Worldwide, GE Healthcare employs more than 46,000 people committed to serving healthcare professionals and their patients in more than 100 countries. For more information about GE Healthcare, visit our website at www.gehealthcare.com

ABOUT BREASTCHECK

BreastCheck, The National Breast Screening Programme is an Irish government funded mammography screening service. It aims to provide an effective breast screening service to the highest possible quality, so that the maximum number of breast cancers can be detected at the earliest possible stage. BreastCheck aims to reduce the number of deaths from breast cancer in Ireland amongst women aged 50 - 64.

BreastCheck provides a free breast screening service to eligible women by personal invitation every two years. The programme screens systematically on an area-by-area basis in each service area reflecting electoral divisions. BreastCheck works with a multi-disciplinary team approach to the screening of women involving specialist clinicians, radiographers and breast care nurses. The service includes mammography, diagnosis and primary treatment.

BreastCheck currently provides screening to women in the northeast, east, midlands and parts of the south east of the country through two static units (the Eccles Screening Unit adjacent to the Mater Misericordiae University Hospital and the Merrion Screening Unit adjacent to St.Vincent's University Hospital) and a fleet of mobile units. In 2005 78,945 women were invited for screening by BreastCheck and 59,443 women attended appointments.

BreastCheck is expanding the service nationally to offer screening to all eligible women throughout the southern and western regions of the Ireland. The screening programme will be extended nationwide and the target date for commencement of expansion programme is by the end of autumn 2007.

A Southern screening unit is being built in Cork, on the campus of South Infirmary Victoria Hospital and a Western screening unit will be located on the campus of University College Hospital, Galway. These units, together with a fleet of mobile units will provide screening to the rest of the country.

Following national expansion of the breast screening programme in Ireland the upper age limit will be extended to women aged 69, in accordance with the European Councils recommendation.

GE Healthcare Acquires Wave Biotech LLC, Broadening Capabilities in Growing Biopharmaceutical Manufacture Segment

GE Healthcare, a unit of General Electric Company (NYSE:GE), today announced it has acquired Wave Biotech LLC, a supplier of innovative disposable manufacturing technologies for the biopharmaceutical industry. The acquisition of Wave Biotech LLC including its subsidiary Wave Europe Pvt. Ltd. will allow GE Healthcare to expand its offering of products and services for the manufacture of biopharmaceuticals such as antibodies and vaccines. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Wave Biotech develops and manufactures unique bioreactors which are designed to replace traditional and more expensive stainless steel tanks and piping. The patented products offer considerable advantages such as more rapid installation, potentially reducing time to market, and significantly lower costs by eliminating the need for cleaning and validating between batches. The equipment is already in use in over three hundred companies worldwide. Wave Biotech single use bioreactors are also increasingly being used to enable the manufacture of patient-specific cell and gene therapy products.

Ann O’Hara, General Manager of GE Healthcare’s BioProcess business, said “Wave Biotech is an excellent company with a strong track record of innovation and a product range that is highly complementary with our existing BioProcess business. The combination of GE Healthcare and Wave Biotech will allow us to expand into new applications and to create a broad offering of added value tools and services for biopharmaceutical manufacture.”

"We are very excited to be part of GE Healthcare, who already offer a broad range of technologies and services to the biopharmaceutical manufacturing industry” said Dr. Vijay Singh, President and founder of Wave Biotech. "Our customers will benefit greatly from the global presence and the R&D resources that GE Healthcare brings to the table. The integration of single-use cell culture with GE Healthcare’s existing filtration and downstream operations will provide a host of new disposable solutions to this growing industry."

About GE Healthcare

GE Healthcare provides transformational medical technologies and services that are shaping a new age of patient care. Our expertise in medical imaging and information technologies, medical diagnostics, patient monitoring systems performance improvement, drug discovery, and biopharmaceutical manufacturing technologies is helping clinicians around the world re-imagine new ways to predict, diagnose, inform, treat and monitor disease, so patients can live their lives to the fullest.

GE Healthcare's broad range of products and services enable healthcare providers to better diagnose and treat cancer, heart disease, neurological diseases and other conditions earlier. Our vision for the future is to enable a new "early health" model of care focused on earlier diagnosis, pre-symptomatic disease detection and disease prevention. Headquartered in the United Kingdom, GE Healthcare is a $17 billion unit of General Electric Company (NYSE:GE). Worldwide, GE Healthcare employs more than 46,000 people committed to serving healthcare professionals and their patients in more than 100 countries. For more information about GE Healthcare, visit our website at www.gehealthcare.com

About Wave Biotech LLC

Wave Biotech is a research-based company that develops and manufactures innovative process equipment for the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry. Our focus is on developing disposable bioprocess equipment for operations traditionally requiring stainless-steel tanks and piping. Key products, such as the Wave Bioreactor, Wave Mixer, and Sterile Tube Fuser, feature disposable contact materials that eliminate cleaning and validation, thereby reducing costs in operations ranging from cell culture, media preparation, buffer dissolution, thawing process intermediates to patient-specific cell therapy in hospitals. These unique, patented, devices can be installed and commissioned rapidly, drastically reducing the time-to-market for biological products. This equipment is in use with hundreds of companies worldwide, both for R&D and commercial applications. Wave Biotech employs approximately 70 people worldwide and operates R&D and manufacturing facilities in Somerset, New Jersey. Wave Biotech’s annual revenues are approximately $25 million. Dr. Vijay Singh, President and founder of Wave Biotech, will continue to operate the business from the Somerset facility. More information is available at www.wavebiotech.com

GE Scientists Discover that Nanostructures on the Surface of Butterfly Wings Exhibit Acute Chemical Sensing Capabilities

GE Global Research, the centralized research organization of the General Electric Company (NYSE: GE), today announced researchers have discovered that the nanostructures on the wing scales of butterflies exhibit high-performance optical properties that facilitate a selective detection of vapors. The finding could lead to the design of highly acute chemical sensors for diverse vapor-detection applications ranging from security to manufacturing and healthcare.

GE’s research team, led by Dr. Radislav Potyrailo, an analytical chemist in the Chemical and Biological Sensing Laboratory at Global Research’s headquarters in Niskayuna, reported its discovery in the latest issue of the journal, Nature Photonics. The article is this month’s featured cover story and can be accessed at the following link: http://www.nature.com/nphoton/index.html

Dr. Potyrailo said, “Nano-scale features created by nature are providing countless discoveries and stimulate our research into new, exciting technological areas. We have found that nanostructures on the wing scales of tropical Morpho butterflies exhibit optical properties that provide a highly selective response to chemical vapors. The challenge now is finding a way to mimic nature and to design acute and robust chemical sensors that will offer new attractive sensing solutions in the marketplace. That is what we are focused on solving.”

Dr. Potyrailo cited a review article that appeared in the journal Nature in 2003 by Pete Vukusic and J. Roy Sambles, titled “Photonic structures in biology,” which inspired his research on the wing scales of butterflies for vapor detection. The article discussed the nano-scale photonic structures in butterfly wings and the blue iridescence that they produced. “After initial careful experiments, it was clear that the underlying optical properties exhibited by the nanostructures on butterfly wings could offer a promising route to highly selective chemical sensing capabilities,” Dr. Potyrailo said.

Dr. Potyrailo assembled a research team that explored further the origin and details of this unique selective vapor response of butterfly wing scales. The team included Professor Helen Ghiradella from the Department of Biological Sciences, University at Albany; and Alexei Vertiatchikh, Katharine Dovidenko, Eric Olson, and James Cournoyer from GE Global Research.

Dr. Potyrailo noted that fabricating the photonic nanostructures found in butterfly wings will be very challenging, but commercial applications could reach the market within the next five years. The discovery is one in a growing list of breakthroughs that GE researchers have made in the field of nanotechnology:

For chemical and biological sensing, GE scientists in the Research Center’s Chemical and Biological Sensing, Nanotechnology, and Microstructural and Surface Sciences Labs have developed a suite of nanocomposite and nanostructured materials. These materials utilize multisize semiconductor nanocrystals in polymer films and core/shell colloidal crystal films to create selective gas nanosensors, highly stable tags for surface-enhanced Raman biosensing and bioassays, and nanostructured metal films for improved label-free biosensing.
In 2005, GE Global Research announced the development of an ideal carbon nanotube diode that operates at the “theoretical limit,” or best possible performance, which will enable smaller and faster electronic devices with increased functionality.
In another example of biomimicry, within the past two years, GE scientists in the Research Center’s Nanotechnology Lab have been able to replicate the super-water repellant effect of the Lotus leaf on both plastic and metal. The super water-repellant effect exhibits a self-cleaning feature of washing dirt and particles from the surface of a material when a water-based liquid hits it. GE scientists are exploring potential applications in aviation and energy, where self-cleaning parts could greatly enhance the efficiency of such products as a gas turbine or aircraft engine.
In the January 2007 issue of the journal, Nature Nanotechnology, scientists in GE’s Nanotechnology Lab reported on a promising breakthrough in nanotechnology they made that provides a direct pathway to making nanoceramic materials from polymeric precursors. Developing processes and a greater understanding of nano-engineered ceramics could lead to future applications in aviation and energy, where products such as aircraft engines and gas turbines could one day achieve new levels of efficiency, reliability and environmental performance.


About GE Global Research:

GE Global Research was the first industrial research lab in the United States and is one of the world's most diversified research centers, providing innovative technology for all of GE's businesses. Global Research has been the cornerstone of GE technology for more than 100 years, developing breakthrough innovations in areas such as medical imaging, energy generation technology, jet engines, advanced materials and lighting. GE Global Research is headquartered in Niskayuna, New York and has facilities in Bangalore, India; Shanghai, China; and Munich, Germany. Visit GE Global Research at www.ge.com/research