Haemonetics Agreement With American Red Cross to Supply Newest Blood Freezing Technology.

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BRAINTREE, Mass.--(BW HealthWire)--Oct. 11, 2001

Haemonetics Corporation (NYSE: HAE) announced today that the American Red Cross has contracted to utilize the Company's latest blood freezing technology, the ACP(TM) 215 system, to expand its frozen blood storage capability. The Red Cross agreed to purchase 30 Haemonetics systems. No other terms of the Agreement were disclosed.

Haemonetics' innovative system enables the freezing of red blood cells for up to 10 years and when needed, thawing those cells. The technology automates the blood freezing process in a closed system, which allows for 14-day storage of the thawed red blood cells. Previous technologies required thawed blood to be used within 24 hours after thawing or be discarded. This news follows last Friday's announcement about the U.S. Military's decision to speed up deployment of this technology in the Armed Services frozen blood program. Other civilian blood collection organizations have also made inquiries regarding this new technology and its use in building frozen blood programs.

"Haemonetics is proud to be contributing to this important initiative," James L. Peterson, Haemonetics' president and CEO stated. "The enormously generous outpouring of donors after the tragic events of September 11th created blood inventory levels that could be leveraged to maximize frozen blood programs. We hope that blood collectors will be able to take advantage of this unique situation by using state of the art technology to assure blood availability."

Blood stored in a liquid state must be used within 42 days. Blood that is frozen can be stored for up to 10 years prior to use. The concept of a frozen blood supply is to freeze precious units of blood, collected at times of surplus, to keep in reserve for use during a time of blood shortage. In recent years the US has experienced significant localized blood shortages. Shortages occur due to unanticipated demand from particular patients, accidents, natural disasters and other events that disrupt supply and distribution of blood. Shortages also occur during times when an adequate number of donors are not able to donate due to flu season, weather and natural disasters, holiday and vacation schedules.

Earlier versions of the freezing technology required thawed blood to be transfused to patients within 24 hours. Haemonetics' newest generation of blood freezing and thawing technology, the ACP 215 automated cell processing system, allows thawed red blood cells to be stored for 14 days prior to transfusion. The ACP 215 system was given 510(k) clearance by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in May 2001.

At present, the frozen blood market is small, representing a small percentage of blood transfused in the U.S. However, freezing blood is the first application of Haemonetics' new generation of laboratory processing equipment and disposables. The Company anticipates that within the next few years this technology platform will also be used for pathogen inactivation of red blood cells in collaboration with V.I. Technologies, Inc. Pathogen inactivation is a technique that has applicability for all red cell units transfused to patients.

The ACP 215 system will be on display and demonstrated at the Haemonetics booth at the American Association of Blood Banks' annual meeting from October 14th-17th in San Antonio, TX.

Haemonetics will hold its annual securities analyst conference in Boston on December 13, 2001.

Haemonetics is a global company engaged in the design, manufacture and worldwide marketing of automated blood processing systems. These systems address important medical markets: surgical blood salvage, blood component collections and plasma collections. To learn more about Haemonetics' products and markets, visit the Company's web site at http://www.haemonetics.com.

This release contains forward looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties, including technological advances in the medical field, product demand, market acceptance, regulatory uncertainties, the effect of economic conditions, the impact of competitive products and pricing, blood product reimbursement policies and practices, foreign currency exchange rates and other risks detailed in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The forward looking statements are based on estimates and assumptions made by management of the Company and are believed to be reasonable, though are inherently uncertain and difficult to predict. Actual results and experience could differ materially from the forward looking statements.