Bio-reference Laboratories and Roche Diagnostics Announce Strategic Alliance to Manage CareEvolve.

Business Editors

ELMWOOD PARK, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 22, 2002

Roche Assumes Co-management and Marketing Responsibility for

Web-based Laboratory / Physician Connectivity Solution

Bio-Reference Laboratories, Inc. (NASDAQ: BRLI) announced today that it has executed a Strategic Marketing Alliance Agreement with Roche Diagnostics Corporation.

Roche will advance operating funds, will provide marketing support through the Roche Diagnostics marketing and sales force, and will assume joint management responsibility for the continuing operations of CareEvolve, the Bio-Reference web-based laboratory and physician connectivity solution.

Pursuant to the terms of the Agreement, Roche will immediately advance $1,000,000 towards the operations of CareEvolve, which will fund a team of dedicated marketing specialists who will provide primary support to the entire marketing effort and especially to the support of the Roche marketing and sales force. This effort will initially concentrate on bringing the CareEvolve Solution to clinical laboratories with whom Roche has developed strong and long-standing relationships. Pursuant to the Agreement, CareEvolve will be placed under the direction of a steering committee consisting of three members each from Bio-Reference and Roche, including Richard Aderman, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Lab Network, Marc Grodman, MD, CEO of Bio-Reference Laboratories and Morton Topfer, Board Member at Bio-Reference. Additionally, Roche has reserved the right to acquire a fifty per cent equity position in CareEvolve.

CareEvolve has been designed to provide a comprehensive physician office solution with a flexible interface that can be tailored to meet the specific needs of the user within that user's local environment. CareEvolve has been fully operational since October 2000 and has been marketed primarily to Bio-Reference customers. The system has been designed to operate as a full service clinical laboratory solution for laboratory physician-customers providing laboratory services only through the Lab Center module; or it can be offered as a full service suite to enhance productivity in the physician office. The services provided include a sophisticated and powerful laboratory ordering and reporting system, access to the MedUnite suite of transactional claims services, communications systems to enable physician-patient, physician-physician and physician-payor secure dialogue, as well as additional products and services, including disease management, that are designed to improve office and personal productivity for the physician and the physician's office.

Roche Diagnostics, a division of the Roche Group, is a worldwide leader in providing Health Information Services. Through its various businesses, Roche Diagnostics serves clinical laboratories, healthcare providers and healthcare consumers. Roche Diagnostics provides innovative, cost-effective, timely and reliable diagnostic systems for the in-vitro diagnostic market, for the patient self-monitoring sector and for the research community. Roche products are used in clinical laboratories throughout the world and Roche marketing representatives have worldwide access to the CareEvolve target customer base.

Marc Grodman, MD, President, CEO and Chairman of the Board of Bio-Reference Laboratories, stated: "We are pleased that Roche has not only chosen to invest in our solution technology, but is also willing to validate our belief that the clinical laboratory plays a vital role in the connectivity required to provide healthcare solutions. We have spent a great deal of effort and creative expertise in building a superior connectivity solution. Our relationship with Roche has been evolving for many years now and we are extremely pleased with the new direction hallmarked by this strategic alliance. We rely upon Roche for many of the diagnostic products, especially the molecular diagnostic and chemistry products, which we use to operate our facilities. With the Roche marketing effort and financial support behind it, we believe that CareEvolve will quickly be recognized as the premier physician and laboratory connectivity solution on the market. It is a powerful platform for the delivery of productivity solutions and with the Roche marketing effort behind it, we expect that our belief in its value will be affirmed through market adoption. We look forward to continuing to work with Roche in creative ways to enhance laboratory services and the assurance of quality and efficient health care."

Martin Madaus, President and CEO of Roche Diagnostics Corporation stated: "We have worked closely with Bio-Reference Laboratories as a customer for many years now and we are enthusiastic about this new relationship. For several years now, we have been seeking an Internet solution to provide to our laboratory customers and believe the CareEvolve system and its underlying strategy will provide our customers with an outstanding solution as well as create a platform upon which Roche can provide additional healthcare services that support the Roche corporate goals and objectives. We look forward to an enthusiastic return on our investment with this relationship."

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.

About Roche Diagnostics

Headquartered in Basel, Switzerland, Roche is one of the world's leading research-oriented healthcare groups in the fields of pharmaceuticals, diagnostics and vitamins. Roche's products and services address prevention, diagnosis and treatment of diseases, thus enhancing well-being and quality of life. Roche's Diagnostics Division, the world leader in in-vitro diagnostics with a uniquely broad product portfolio, supplies a wide array of innovative testing products and services to researchers, physicians, patients, hospitals and laboratories worldwide. Roche Diagnostics Corporation, based in Indianapolis, is the North American headquarters for the diagnostics business of the company. Roche's website is located at www.roche.com.

This press release contains certain "forward-looking" statements, as defined in the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, that involve a number of risks and uncertainties. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate and the actual results and future events could differ materially from management's current expectations. Such factors are detailed from time to time in the Company's filings with the regulatory authorities having jurisdiction.