ChemTrak announces strategic business alliance with Parent's Alert to expand distribution of home drug testing service; ChemTrak's third major product introduction in fiscal 1997.

SUNNYVALE, Calif.--(BW HealthWire)--May 6, 1997--ChemTrak Inc. (NASDAQ:CMTR) Tuesday announced an exclusive agreement with Parent's Alert, a grassroots organization that provides home drug test kits to concerned parents as a tool to help keep their children off drugs.

Under terms of the agreement, ChemTrak will assume responsibility for nationwide marketing and distribution of the Parent's Alert Home Drug Test Service. In return, Parent's Alert will receive royalty payments from ChemTrak for use of its name. Because ChemTrak faces no significant regulatory hurdles in launching Parent's Alert, product distribution under the new agreement is expected to begin in the third quarter of this year.

Parent's Alert was founded in 1994 by Sunny Cloud, a Smyrna, Ga. mother of two, who began selling home drug testing kits after discovering her son smoking marijuana. Taking her son to a hospital for a drug test, Cloud discovered the consequences associated with drug testing in a health care facility. In addition to the significant expense, the results become part of the child's permanent medical records which can affect matters such as future insurability, driver's licensing, etc.

"Parents need a tool we can hold in our hands and use as a preventative measure instead of waiting until drugs become a problem for our kids," Cloud said. "We need a system that allows us to test our children confidentially, inexpensively and reliably, with the ultimate goal being to open the lines of communication between parent and child regarding the risks of drug use."

The product is currently available from Parent's Alert at 800/TEST170, and in Georgia at 404/691-8055.

The Parent's Alert Home Drug Test Service involves sending a urine sample to a designated laboratory certified by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). Parents then call a toll-free number to receive test results. The entire process can be performed within the privacy of the home.

"Our agreement with Parent's Alert recognizes our position as a market leader in providing dependable home testing systems," said Edward F. Covell, ChemTrak's president and chief executive officer.

"Between Sunny Cloud's strong commitment to Parent's Alert and ChemTrak's understanding of the home health diagnostics market, we believe that this test service can become a major resource to parents across the nation. The addition of the Parent's Alert Home Drug Testing Service is another building block in our strategy of building revenues and profits through the addition of synergistic new diagnostic products."

The ChemTrak/Parent's Alert alliance takes aim at a growing national concern -- the steady increase in drug abuse among teenagers. According to the 1996 Monitoring the Future Study (fielded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse-NIDA), drug use is on the rise after a period of decline in the early 1990s. In fact, half of the U.S. high school seniors in 1996 -- 50.8 percent -- reported having tried drugs by their senior year, up from a low of 40.7 percent in 1992. Further, the annual Attitude Tracking study shows more tolerant attitudes about drug use and greater ease in obtaining drugs among children 9 to 17, and strong feelings of denial among their parents.

The agreement with Parent's Alert marks ChemTrak's third major product release in fiscal 1997. ChemTrak, founded in 1985, is a full-service medical diagnostics company offering reliable and easy-to-use medical testing systems for in-home use. Its current products include the CholesTrak, Cholesterol Home Test Kit, and the ColoCARE Home Test to detect the early warning signs of Colorectal Disease. ChemTrak medical test kits are designed to screen and diagnose health conditions with accuracy comparable to physician and laboratory-administered tests.

Except for the historical information contained herein, this news release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. Actual results might differ materially from these statemens due to risks and uncertainties, including determinations by the FDA, the impact of competitive product and pricing, the timely development and acceptance of new products and medical market conditions and other factors discussed in the company's 1996 form 10-K.

CONTACT: ChemTrak, Sunnyvale

Don Fluken, 408/522-3105

or

Neale-May & Partners

Dick Claeys, 415/328-5555, ext. 125