Roche Diagnostics ropes in Wasim Akram

Company release, May 20, 2005

New Delhi

Roche Diagnostics India Pvt Ltd, a leading player in the area of Diagnostic Products, today launched an Advertising Campaign for its flagship brand Accu-Chek with Wasim Akram as the Brand Ambassador. Accu-Chek is a fast, accurate and reliable Blood Glucose Monitoring System specifically designed to help people with diabetes to monitor their blood glucose levels themselves.

The new Campaign by Roche Diagnostics exhorts the consumers on Accu-Chek’s philosophy of ‘Live Life- The Way You Want,’ - a conviction, that one can lead a normal life in-spite of being a diabetic.

Speaking at the launch of their latest campaign Mr. Sanjeev Johar, MD, Roche Diagnostics India Pvt Ltd said, “Consumers today live life in the fast lane and are increasingly adopting ‘Do-It-Yourself’ products, which provide both convenience as well as confidence. People have also started to realize that incurable diseases can be managed with regular monitoring & control. Through this campaign, we want to emphasize the importance of timely self-monitoring and hence lead a healthy lifestyle. Wasim Akram personifies the spirit of the Accu-Chek brand and we are hopeful of a long and fruitful innings with this association.”

Current campaign is an extension of ‘Accu-Chek Inspiration Series’ started in October 2004 with Wasim Akram. ‘Accu-Chek Inspiration Series’ aims to create awareness, through road shows across the country, on diabetes and its management through Self monitoring. The series primarily focuses on spreading the message through school children. At each event, school going children, who despite a physical, mental or economical handicap have excelled in their life, are felicitated by Wasim Akram himself. The whole process is in sync with Accu- Chek’s philosophy of ‘Live life. The way you want,’ - a conviction that one can lead a normal life in spite of being afflicted with diabetes.

The Ad campaign has been conceptualized and scripted by Michael D’Souza of Basic Instinct, a creative boutique specializing in Brand Strategy. The crisp thirty second commercial will hit all the channels nationally on May 20, 2005 followed by a print campaign with publications across India.

About Roche Diagnostics & Accu-Chek:

Headquartered in Basel, Switzerland, Roche is one of the world’s leading research-focused healthcare groups in the fields of pharmaceuticals and diagnostics. As a supplier of innovative products and services for the early detection, prevention, diagnosis and treatment of disease, the Group contributes on a broad range of fronts to improving people’s health and quality of life. Roche is a world leader in diagnostics, the leading supplier of medicines for cancer and transplantation and a market leader in virology. In 2004 sales by the Pharmaceuticals Division totaled 21.7 billion Swiss francs, while the Diagnostics Division posted sales of 7.8 billion Swiss francs. Roche employs roughly 65,000 people in 150 countries and has R&D agreements and strategic alliances with numerous partners, including majority ownership interests in Genentech and Chugai.

Roche’s Diagnostics Division offers a uniquely broad product portfolio and supplies a wide array of innovative testing products and services to researchers, physicians, patients, hospitals and laboratories world-wide. For further information, please visit our websites www.roche.com and www.roche-diagnostics.com

Accu-Chek Active is a fast, accurate and reliable Blood Glucose Monitor available from Roche Diagnostics. The Accu-Chek system consists of a Blood Glucose Meter; test Strips, lancing device and lancets. The Accu-Chek Active Glucose strip is fast & the test time is only 5 seconds with a small amount of blood required for each test. Used in conjunction with Accu-Chek Softclix - lancing device, the system gives a pain free experience.

For further details please contact

Piyali Dasgupta/ Teena Sukheja

Perfect Relations

Tel – 2431 4440

Mobile –98100 91403