IMS Health and IRI Forge Global Alliance In Consumer Health.

Fully Integrated, End-to-End Capabilities for Superior Insights into Healthcare Market Dynamics

NORWALK, Conn. & CHICAGO -- IMS Health (NYSE: RX) and Information Resources, Inc. (IRI) today announced a global alliance to provide industry-leading business intelligence, analytics and consulting expertise on the consumer health marketplace. The multi-year alliance establishes a seamless, end-to-end view of three key market segments - prescription medicines, over-the-counter products and consumer packaged goods - providing clients with unique, new insights into consumer dynamics that are driving today's healthcare decisions.

IMS is the world's leading provider of market intelligence to the pharmaceutical and healthcare industries. IRI is a leading global provider of market information, insights and decision solutions for the consumer packaged goods, retail, and healthcare industries.

"This alliance leverages our two companies' respective strengths, and enables us to enhance and expand our offerings backed by the healthcare industry's most robust information, analytics and consulting capabilities," said Gilles Pajot, IMS's chief operating officer. "With a truly integrated view of consumer health marketplace dynamics, our clients can make better decisions on how to identify market opportunities, optimize portfolios and allocate resources to drive growth. IMS and IRI already are working together successfully in several key markets around the world, providing fresh, evidence-based perspectives that support every aspect of marketing and sales decision making."

At a time when consumers increasingly are empowered to make their own healthcare decisions, the two companies will offer superior insights into market dynamics - equipping clients with more comprehensive information and analyses and innovative offerings to help them launch new products, reposition existing brands, manage sales teams and inventories, and reach the right prescribers, retailers and consumers. With a deeper understanding of consumers' purchasing behaviors and attitudes toward their health and well being, clients can optimize their brand performance and promotional investments across sales channels, markets and stakeholder groups.

The initial focus of the alliance will be on the U.S. and European markets, where IMS and IRI are well positioned to assess regional and local trends - from the increasing number of prescription drugs available over-the-counter in the United States, to the growing role of mass market channels for consumer health products in Europe.

"Today's global prescription, over-the-counter and consumer packaged goods markets are rapidly converging, creating the need for a unified view of product performance supported by predictive analytics," observed IRI President and Chief Executive Officer John Freeland. "This alliance will lead to a better understanding of prescription and OTC purchases, and their relationship to consumer packaged goods purchasing activity. As a result, manufacturers and retailers will be able to better understand consumers' evolving healthcare choices in a more holistic, meaningful way."

According to IMS and IRI estimates, the global consumer health market is valued at $400 billion, and is expected to grow six percent annually during the next five years.

The IRI Healthcare Solutions Group provides pharmaceutical, healthcare and worldwide consumer goods companies, as well as retailers, with consumer intelligence and analytic services. IMS tracks more than 1 million healthcare products daily, covering over 70 percent of all pharmaceutical sales transactions worldwide - and more than 90 percent of transactions in the United States.

About IMS

Operating in more than 100 countries, IMS Health is the world's leading provider of market intelligence to the pharmaceutical and healthcare industries. With $2.0 billion in 2006 revenue and more than 50 years of industry experience, IMS offers leading-edge market intelligence products and services that are integral to clients' day-to-day operations, including portfolio optimization capabilities; launch and brand management solutions; sales force effectiveness innovations; managed care and consumer health offerings; and consulting and services solutions that improve ROI and the delivery of quality healthcare worldwide.

As a global leader in protecting individual patient privacy, IMS uses de-identified healthcare data to deliver critical, real-world disease and treatment insights. These insights help medical researchers, government agencies, and healthcare and pharmaceutical companies identify unmet treatment needs and understand the effectiveness and value of pharmaceutical products in improving overall health outcomes. Additional information is available at http://www.imshealth.com.

About Information Resources, Inc.

IRI is the world's leading provider of consumer, shopper, and retail market information, insights and decision solutions to 95 percent of the FORTUNE Global 500 consumer packaged goods (CPG), healthcare and retail companies. Only IRI offers the unique combination of integrated market and shopper information, automated analytics and predictive insights, innovative technology, and domain expertise. With IRI, leading manufacturers and retailers are able to drive their growth by quickly discovering breakthrough insights, making smarter decisions, taking faster actions across the enterprise, and achieving breakthrough results. Companies around the world depend on IRI for technology and solutions that enable brand building, successful new product launches, consumer-driven merchandising/retail execution and consumer and shopper relationship management. For more information, visit http://us.infores.com.