Cook Pharmica Named 2007 Facility of the Year Category Winner in Global Competition.

Local Biotech Startup Now Eligible for Global Facility of the Year Award

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Cook Pharmica LLC, the contract biopharmaceutical manufacturing division of Cook Medical, has won the 2007 Facility of the Year Category Award for Facility/Integration. The prestigious global industry award is sponsored by the International Society of Pharmaceutical Engineers (ISPE), INTERPHEX and Pharmaceutical Processing magazine. Cook Pharmica was selected for its "Project Phoenix" operation, the $70 million biopharmaceutical contract manufacturing facility built using a vacant color television assembly plant in Bloomington, Ind. as a shell for the 21st Century biotech operation.

"This award is a wonderful tribute to all those who came together to transform this former television assembly plant into a state-of-the-art biopharmaceutical manufacturing facility," says Jerry Arthur, president of Cook Pharmica. "We are honored to receive this prestigious award and proud to share it with our Project Phoenix partners, and look forward to hearing whether our plant ultimately wins the top global award."

By winning the Facility/Integration category award, Cook Pharmica is now one of five finalists for the overall Facility of the Year Award. That award will be announced during the ISPE's international annual meeting in November.

Cook Pharmica is a state-of-the-art biopharmaceutical contract manufacturer of mammalian cell culture-based products. The facility provides process development, flexible manufacturing and analytical services to the global biotech community, thereby enabling its partners to bring their life-saving discoveries to patients.

With its two 2500L bioreactors, Pharmica's current CGMP manufacturing and purification capacity is sized for clinical and small-scale commercial runs. The facility's highly advanced design incorporates disposable technologies, segregated production rooms, innovative wall pass-throughs and unidirectional flow of operators, equipment and supplies to reduce the risk of contamination.

Cook Pharmica offers contract development, purification and analytical services in its laboratories, including CGMP cell banking and storage. The facility's quality control analytical and microbiology labs also provide contract services.

Project Phoenix, as it was dubbed internally, renovated an existing building originally built in the 1960s that was once home to the world's largest television assembly plant. The project combined conventional construction for the administrative and laboratory areas with state-of-the-art modular construction for the biopharmaceutical manufacturing areas. Work was completed in a remarkably short period - just 32 months - from the formation of Cook Pharmica as a business to the completion of critical systems validations. The manufacturing portion of the facility was designed by CRB Consulting Engineers, Inc. and built by AES Clean Technology, Inc., a provider of modular clean room wall systems.

Founded in 2004, Cook Pharmica is a privately held, wholly-owned subsidiary of Cook Medical formed in response to the biopharmaceutical industry's need for additional mammalian cell culture manufacturing capacity and development services. The facility construction was completed in late 2005 followed by validation of critical systems in 2006. The 124,000 square foot plant is expandable to 450,000 square feet, with a second independent building, equal in size, available for future expansion to meet the needs of customers.

About COOK Pharmica:

Cook Pharmica (www.cookpharmica.com) is a biopharmaceutical contract biopharmaceutical manufacturing organization developing and manufacturing mammalian cell culture-based pharmaceuticals for pre-clinical through commercial use. Cook Pharmica also offers cell line/strain development, clone selection, cell line adaptation, media optimization, process development, analytical development, cell banking/storage, stability testing/storage and regulatory submission support.

About Cook Medical

Cook Medical, the world's largest privately held medical device company with 15 manufacturing facilities and more than 6,300 employees worldwide, has pioneered countless innovative minimally invasive interventional technologies for diagnostic and therapeutic procedures and is leading the way in the convergence of devices, drug-eluting coatings, bio-derived materials, and cell and gene therapies that will further benefit patients in the 21st Century. One of the fastest-growing medical technology companies in the world since its founding in 1963, Cook is recognized as a leading developer, manufacturer and global distributor of cutting-edge interventional therapies in the fields of radiology, cardiology, urology, aortic intervention, peripheral intervention including peripheral vascular, bone access and oncology, women's health and other gender-specific procedures, critical care medicine, surgery and soft tissue repair, gastroenterology and cellular and genetic therapies in addition to contract manufacturing. With global headquarters in Bloomington, Ind., the company won the prestigious Medical Device Manufacturer of the Year Award for 2006 from Medical Device & Diagnostic Industry magazine. For more information, visit www.cookmedical.com.