Bio-Reference Laboratories, Inc. Holds Year-end Analysts' Conference Call; Bio-Reference Joined On Call by CEO of Roche Diagnostics.

Business Editors/Medical Writers

ELMWOOD PARK, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 25, 2002

Bio-Reference Laboratories, Inc. (NASDAQ: BRLI) held a conference call yesterday afternoon to discuss the fourth quarter 2001 and fiscal year 2001 earnings report which was released earlier yesterday.

Marc D. Grodman, MD, President, CEO and Chairman of the Board highlighted what he considered to be the major events of fiscal 2001, along with a discussion of the financial metrics over the past fiscal year and some expectations for the coming fiscal year. Dr. Grodman was joined on the conference call by Martin Madaus, CEO and President of Roche Diagnostics, who made some observations about the Strategic Marketing Alliance announced on January 22, 2002, between Bio-Reference and Roche.

Dr. Grodman declined to provide analysts' guidance for a variety of reasons, but he did indicate that the Company expects to continue its 20% revenue growth rate in fiscal 2002 that it has demonstrated on a compound basis for the past eight years; he further indicated that the Company expects that profits will increase by at least 50% over the current fiscal year. Dr. Grodman explained that the Company's first quarter includes major holidays and falls within the worst weather days of the year and he did not provide guidance for the first quarter 2002.

During the call Dr. Grodman noted that during the past year Accounts Receivable for Bio-Reference have increased 13% while Revenues increased by 21% indicating the excellent efforts that the Company has been making to reduce Accounts Receivable over the past year. In commenting on the esoteric testing performed by the Company during fiscal 2001, Dr. Grodman stated that the 22% increase in esoteric category testing at Bio-Reference mentioned in the earnings press release represented a 50% increase over the percentage that esoteric testing represented in fiscal year 2000. Dr. Grodman noted that while the revenue from esoteric testing is relatively high, the expense of running those tests is higher than the expense of running routine tests and it is therefore difficult to predict the full effect that Bio-Reference will experience as a result of its increase in esoteric testing.

Martin Madaus, CEO and President of Roche Diagnostics, joined the call in order to comment on the strategic alliance recently announced between Roche and Bio-Reference. Mr. Madaus stated that Roche has had a long-standing relationship with Bio-Reference and that Roche has been searching for a full service solution for laboratories and physicians for the past 18 months. He noted that Roche had decided to enter the relationship with Bio-Reference because the two parties share the same vision, the solution provides the services and products that Roche believes will be beneficial to physicians and laboratories and CareEvolve includes both disease management programs and transaction processing through MedUnite along with a superior laboratory test ordering and reporting system.

In response to questions posed by analysts, Dr. Grodman noted that the Company's current profits include a tax benefit of $414,000 due to net operating loss carryforwards and that there still remains approximately $4,700,000 in additional net operating loss carryforwards that will continue to affect the Company's earnings. Dr. Grodman commented on the recently announced United Healthcare contract by pointing out that Bio-Reference received favorable contract prices on both routine and specialty tests and by observing that there will probably be an immediate beneficial effect to Bio-Reference from the contract since many of Bio-Reference's existing physicians already have patients whose clinical testing can now be directed to Bio-Reference.

In comments about the Roche contract, Dr. Grodman stated that Bio-Reference had reported a loss of about $800,000 on the books of the Company last year attributable to CareEvolve, it's healthcare connectivity solution. However, under the strategic alliance agreement with Roche, Bio-Reference does not expect to incur any further cash losses attributable to CareEvolve. In response to a question about the Visible Genetics contract, Dr. Grodman noted that Bio-Reference had a significant volume of HIV genotype testing prior to the contract and that volume has increased dramatically even without significant marketing under the co-marketing provisions of the VGI agreement.

The full text of the Analysts' call is available through webcast that can be accessed on the Company's website at www.bioreference.com.

About Bio-Reference Laboratories, Inc.

The Company is the largest independent regional clinical laboratory in the Northeast and has major market positions in physician offices, nursing homes and correctional institutions. The Company is a full service clinical laboratory with specialty capability, especially in the areas of genomics, oncology, correctional health, and complimentary medicine. PSIMedica, a business unit of the Company, is a clinical knowledge management (CKM) organization offering an array of information solutions for reducing healthcare costs and improving quality performance that are based on a flexible, scalable software analytical engine that utilizes all available source information, including claims data, enrollment data, prescription data and laboratory data. The Company provides a comprehensive connectivity solution that includes disease management, laboratory reporting and ordering, as well as claims eligibility and processing, to physicians through CareEvolve, its web-based healthcare portal.

Statements included in this release that are not historical in nature, are intended to be, and are hereby identified as "forward-looking statements". Statements looking forward in time are included in this release pursuant to the "safe harbor" provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Such statements involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties that may cause the Company's actual results in future periods to be materially different from any future performance suggested herein.