American Pharmaceutical Partners Product Innovation: Announces Launch of Novel Devices to Minimize Medication Dispensing Errors.

Business Editors, Health Writers

ASHP 

Booth No. 444

ATLANTA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 9, 2002

American Pharmaceutical Partners, Inc. (APP) (NASDAQ: APPX), a leader in the initiative to barcode at the unit-of-use level to reduce medication errors, today announced it will release two new devices, Steri-Tamp(TM), a true tamper-evident seal, and the Quali-Quick QC Tester, designed to further assist the hospital pharmacist to ensure the highest level of quality control.

Steri-Tamp, an innovative and patented tamper-evident seal, and the Quali-Quick QC Tester, a device that will help allow the pharmacist to ensure quality control for bacterial contamination, were both designed by a pharmacist with the needs of the hospital pharmacy in mind. Both devices are engineered for simple implementation, ultimately enhancing staff confidence that they are providing a safer hospital environment to the patient receiving injectable pharmaceutical products.

"APP believes strongly in identifying challenges pharmacists and hospital professionals face in order to provide innovative solutions to help meet those challenges. In addition to reliably providing a wide range of generic injectable products with the highest standards of quality, APP recognizes the issues of medication errors and patient safety at the pharmacy level," said Patrick Soon-Shiong, M.D., chairman, president and chief executive officer. "In 2001, APP was the first company in the country to commit to barcoding its hospital injectable product line at the unit-of-use level to help hospitals in their efforts to reduce medication errors. The introduction of devices like Steri-Tamp and the Quali-Quick QC Tester are further efforts by our company to address the challenges hospital professionals face regarding dispensing errors and enhancing the quality of patient care."

Steri-Tamp(TM), a next-generation tamper-evident seal, is used to cover drug containers such as vials, IV bottles, IV bags, and syringe covers. When applied, this patented seal technology creates an effective contamination barrier for parenteral admixtures or other previously opened containers. Unlike alternative devices, once the seal is removed it cannot be reattached, and upon removal leaves a visible warning layer that can help guard against double dosing. In addition, Steri-Tamp maintains adhesion at temperatures ranging from ambient all the way through below the freezing point of most medications (-20 degrees C).

The Quali-Quick QC Tester, an IV quality control device, is used to test for bacterial contamination of IV admixtures. The product has been designed as a one-piece, easy-to-use device that tests aseptic technique for microbial analysis of prepared admixtures within the pharmacy. It captures and cultures microorganisms that may have been introduced into an admixture from contaminated solutions, flawed techniques and/or environmental contaminants. Because it tests the entire sample and is filtered with a .22um filter, the Quali-Quick QC Tester may provide increased efficacy compared with other methods. In addition, the Quali-Quick Tester is significantly less expensive for the pharmacy than sending samples to the hospital microbiology lab, a commonly used quality control assay method.

APP leads the pharmaceutical industry with its commitment to enhance patient safety and reduce medication errors in hospitals by being the first company to apply barcodes at the unit-of-use level to all new injectable products launched in 2001. With more than 70% of APP's products now barcoded, the company expects to be manufacturing the remaining hospital injectables with barcodes by January 1, 2003. This goal significantly exceeds the requirements and expectations of both the FDA and group purchasing organizations. To make the implementation as seamless and cost-efficient as possible for its customers, APP uses the most common symbology today--UPC. This symbology is the industry standard and therefore is compatible with virtually all barcode scanners currently on the market.

About American Pharmaceutical Partners, Inc.

American Pharmaceutical Partners, Inc. (APP) is a specialty drug company that develops, manufactures and markets injectable pharmaceutical products, focusing on the oncology, anti-infective and critical care markets. The company is one of the largest producers of injectables, with more than 120 generic products in more than 350 dosages and formulations. Additionally, APP has acquired the exclusive North American rights to manufacture and market a proprietary injectable oncology product, currently in advanced clinical trials and being studied in a variety of cancers. For more information, visit APP's Web site at www.appdrugs.com.

Statements contained in this press release, which are not historical facts, are forward-looking statements, as the term is defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such forward-looking statements, whether expressed or implied, are subject to risks and uncertainties that can cause actual results to differ materially from those currently anticipated, due to a number of factors, which include, but are not limited to, the impact of pharmaceutical industry regulation, the difficulty in predicting the timing or outcome of product development efforts and FDA or other regulatory approvals or actions, the impact of competitive products and pricing, the availability and pricing of ingredients used in the manufacture of pharmaceutical products, the ability to successfully manufacture products in a time-sensitive and cost effective manner, the acceptance and demand of new pharmaceutical products, the impact of patents and other proprietary rights held by competitors and other third parties, and other risk factors discussed in the Company's Form 10K dated December 31, 2001 and documents filed by the Company with the Securities and Exchange Commission from time to time.