LID.L Regulatory News (LID)

28 Mar 2006 07:00

For Immediate Release 28 March 2006 LIDCO GROUP PLC ("LiDCO" or the "Company") Business Innovation Award LiDCO Group plc (AIM: LID), the cardiovascular monitoring company, is delightedto announce that its LiDCOplus Hemodynamic Monitor was awarded the "BusinessInnovation of the Year Award" at the Cambridge Evening News Business ExcellenceAwards ceremony held at King's College, Cambridge on 23 March 2006.The judges were most impressed with the potential benefits from LiDCO'sminimally invasive technology, which could save the NHS half a billion poundsper year and said: "LiDCO is all about saving lives¢â‚¬¦ if I were in hospital andI had to choose, there would be absolutely no choice, I'd want a LiDCO monitor¢â‚¬¦they are knocking over a 30-year-old technology and it's a great achievement tohave got where they have¢â‚¬¦the challenges they have overcome are veryimpressive".Runners-up were Aegate's fake-drug detection system and CMR Fuel Cells' newalternative energy technology. Previous winners have included CambridgeBiostability, who discovered a way of storing vaccines at room temperature,which means they no longer have to be refrigerated; Plastic Logic, thetechnology which allows microchips to be printed, in plastic instead of themuch more expensive silicon; and Cambridge Positioning Systems with theiremergency location-finding technology for mobile phone users in trouble.Dr Terry O'Brien, CEO of Lidco Group Plc, said: "The Cambridge and Silicon Fenarea is a hotbed for new technology and so competition for the BusinessInnovation Award is fierce. We are therefore very honoured to have won thisaward, which acknowledges how powerful the economic and practical benefits fromthe LiDCOplus system really are."For further information please contact:LiDCO Group Plc Tel: +44 (0)20 7749 1500Terry O'Brien - Chief Executive Hugh McGarel-Groves - Finance Director Buchanan Communications Tel: +44 (0)20 7466 5000Tim Anderson, Mary-Jane Johnson, James Strong Panmure Gordon Tel: +44 (0)20 7459 3600Aubrey Powell Notes to EditorsAbout LiDCO PlcLiDCO is a UK-based AIM-traded developer, manufacturer and leading supplier ofminimally invasive, computer-based hemodynamic monitoring equipment anddisposables used primarily for the management of critical care andcardiovascular risk hospital patients. Use of LiDCO's technology has been shownto significantly reduce the complications (particularly infections) and costsassociated with major surgery. The technology was invented in the Department ofApplied Physiology based at St Thomas' Hospital, London where the Companymaintains a research base.The Company's manufacturing facility is in Hoxton, London, and its currentproducts are:¢â‚¬¢ LiDCOplus and PulseCO monitors: computer-based platforms for displaying arange of real-time, continuous hemodynamic parameters including cardiac output,oxygen delivery and fluid volume;¢â‚¬¢ LiDCO disposables: used in conjunction with the LiDCOplus Monitor toaccurately determine cardiac output in a minimally-invasive manner.Distribution Network:The Company has now achieved registration of its products in 13 markets inEurope, the USA, Brazil and Japan. It sells direct to the NHS in the UK, andthrough a worldwide network of specialty critical care distributors.Background to the recently published clinical trial: Better than standard care- Early Goal Directed Therapy (EGDT) improves outcome in high risk surgerypatients:A major trial at St George's Hospital, London, using LiDCO's minimally invasivemonitoring technology, revealed the following:a) Savings in the cost of treating patients amounting to an average of 12 daysless spent in the hospital saving approximately ‚£4,800 per patient.Extrapolated nationally, this would equate to a saving of ‚£500 million perannum for the NHSb) The savings in cost and hospital days were associated with a significantreduction in medical complications (particularly infections - which werehalved) through the use of LiDCO's minimally invasive technology to improvetissue oxygen levels following surgery.ENDLIDCO GROUP PLC