Verispan Reports: $62 Million Gained or Lost Through Patient Switching in the Cholesterol Market for the Week Ending Oct. 3, 2003.

Business Editors/Health/Medical Writers

YARDLEY, Pa.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 10, 2003

Crestor Gains Over 5,400 Net Switches from Other Brands

Based on Verispan's unique database of de-identified patient transactions, Vector One(TM) reports that over 76,000 patients - representing approximately $62 million in retail value(1) - switched therapy in the cholesterol market during the week ending Oct. 3, 2003. Among branded statins, Crestor was the big winner with over 5,400 net switch gains (switches to the brand minus switches away from the brand). Switch gains and losses are examples of the True Patient Measures(TM) exclusively available from Vector One(TM) - the only service that projects patient metrics for the pharmaceutical industry.

Vector One(TM) also projects traditional prescription metrics that are fully integrated with its True Patient Measures(TM). According to Vector One(TM), Crestor gained a 0.5% share of projected total retail prescriptions and a 1.7% share of projected new retail prescriptions for the week ending Oct. 3, 2003. As a result of Vector One's high-speed platform, Vector One subscribers have had this data for several days now, well in advance of competing services.

Vector One(TM) customers received this expedited view of traditional prescription metrics at the same time they received Vector One's exclusive True Patient Measures(TM) for the same week. For example, Vector One(TM) reports that Crestor's share of true new patients in the class was 4.3%, while its share of switched patients was 13.2% -- over twenty-five times its share of total prescriptions. New and switched patient shares are highly predictive of future market share dynamics. Vector One customers also have exclusive access to this unique, powerful data at all levels from prescriber to nation.

Since its retail launch during the week of Aug. 22, 2003, Crestor has made significant gains in the market with over 8,800 prescribers having written prescriptions for the product and over 27,000 patients now using it. Crestor's gains have been fairly evenly split between patients coming onto cholesterol therapy for the first time (42% of the patients Crestor gained) and those switching from a previous therapy (51%). Vector One(TM) shows that Crestor is hitting some brands harder than others, even taking into account relative brand share. Vector One(TM) subscribers also benefit from exclusive insights about the patients and prescribers switching to and from selected products, including age, gender, location, concomitancy, co-morbidity, indication-specific use, titration, persistency and many other measures.

Vector One's powerful new insights are quickly being adopted in the marketplace. "We are elated by customer response," says Verispan Chief Executive Officer Greg Porter. "We are already selling Vector One(TM) to almost all of the top 10 pharmaceutical companies and are pleasantly surprised by the pace of adoption at this early stage. Our customers are very excited by the speed of the results, and especially by the ability to view the same prescription transaction by true patient and prescriber metrics simultaneously."

About Vector One(TM)

Verispan's Vector One(TM) delivers the True Measure of Healthcare, projecting both traditional prescription metrics and True Patient Measures(TM) at every level, from prescriber to nation. These precise measures are delivered in record time for sales representatives and managers, brand managers and market research departments to act and make a difference. Reports are available each week for data through the previous Friday, and monthly reports are available 10 to 14 days post-period, a clear improvement over competitors' delivery timelines.

Vector One's True Patient Measures(TM) utilizes de-identified patient records to track patients across time, across pharmacies, across payers and across providers, and to uniquely pinpoint projected new patient starts, product switches, continuing patients, indication-specific utilization, co-morbid conditions, concomitant use, titration, persistency and a host of other powerful metrics at the individual prescriber level.

Since it includes data from 99% of the nation's pharmacies, the Vector One(TM) projection methodology accounts for activities that are invisible to competing services, which only cover 60%-70% of stores. Vector One(TM) projects third-party, Medicaid and cash activity with unparalleled precision, resulting in greater accuracy at the prescriber level.

For more information about the Vector One(TM) suite of data solutions or Verispan's longitudinal patient-centric database, please contact Jody Fisher at [phone].

Verispan: The True Measure of Healthcare

Verispan, a healthcare informatics joint venture of Quintiles Transnational Corp. and McKesson Corp., provides a broad array of information products and services to the healthcare industry, including market research audits; healthcare profiles; comprehensive managed care products; primary market research; opinion leader mapping; data integration, warehousing and mining; data analysis and consulting; direct mail; list services; disease management studies; clinical trial investigator targeting and protocol recruitment evaluation; healthcare outcomes; and cost/benefit analyses, among many others. Verispan is also the nation's leading provider of patient-centric, longitudinal data, with dozens of products used by clients spanning the industry.

Headquartered in Yardley, Pa., Verispan is comprised of over 500 dedicated healthcare information professionals. The company's Web site is www.verispan.com.

(1) Estimate assumes each patient represents 10 TRxtotal prescriptions over 2 years with 80% margin on an average TRxtotal prescription cost of $101 per prescription.