Novation Announces the Addition of St. Jude Medical to the Cardiac Rhythm Management Products Portfolio

IRVING, Texas, April 8, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Novation, the leading health care supply contracting company, announced today the addition of St. Jude Medical (St. Paul, MN) to its portfolio of agreements for Cardiac Rhythm Management products.

St. Jude Medical is a leading provider of medical devices which treat cardiac, neurological and chronic pain patients. The company provides a full portfolio of arrhythmia management products, including pacemakers, implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs) and leads.

Effective April 1, 2011 the agreement features a complete product offering, locally-negotiated pricing and market share growth rebates as well as price protections and transparency offered through GPO contracts. The new 30-month agreement marks the first collaboration between Novation and St. Jude Medical.

"We are pleased to partner with Novation and their member hospitals to provide additional access to St. Jude Medical's life sustaining technologies. The new agreement has the potential to both increase the use of our arrhythmia management therapies and help to create efficiencies in the supply chain," said Mike Rousseau, Group President of St. Jude Medical.

During Novation's due diligence in this product category, the members of VHA Inc., the University HealthSystem Consortium (UHC) and Provista were overwhelmingly supportive of St. Jude Medical and their products. The products were viewed as both innovative and relevant to meeting their needs of providing quality care at an appropriate price.

"We are excited about the new agreement with St. Jude Medical and how it rounds out our already strong portfolio in this space. We view their products as being both innovative and relevant to meeting the needs of our members," said Pete Allen, senior vice president, sourcing operations at Novation. "We are looking forward to St. Jude Medical's pipeline of new technologies, many which we expect to soon be available in the United States, such as ShockGuard for reduction of inappropriate therapies, quadripolar CRT-D systems, and technologies focused on hemodynamic monitoring for heart failure patient management."

The following products will be available to the members of VHA Inc., UHC and Provista:

• Pacemakers
• Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillators (ICD)
• Heart Failure Devices (CRT-D)
• Leads
• Patient Home Monitoring Systems
• Accessories

About Novation

Founded in 1998, Novation is the leading health care supply contracting company for more than 25,000 members of VHA Inc. and the University HealthSystem Consortium (UHC), two national health care alliances, and 5,500 members of Provista, LLC, representing 28,000 sites. Novation provides alliance members contract and price management and spend management services. Based in Irving, Texas, Novation develops and manages competitive contracts with more than 600 suppliers. VHA, UHC and Provista members used Novation contracts to purchase nearly $39 billion in 2010.

SOURCE Novation