Contact: Sharon Crockett Phone: (860) 571-0100 Ext: 298

CLINIPAD CLOSES CHARLOTTE, NC MANUFACTURING FACILITY February 17, 2000

Rocky Hill, CT, -- On Monday, February 14, Clinipad closed its Charlotte, NC manufacturing facility. This plant produced packaged antiseptics for healthcare, OEM and retail customers. The decision was taken as a consequence of preliminary observations relating to Good Manufacturing Practices made during a recent inspection of the facility by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. We have also suspended shipments of products containing components manufactured in this plant pending receipt of the FDA's inspection report.

This decision has disrupted production in Clinipad's other operations. We are in the process of qualifying new packaged antiseptics for procedural kits assembled in Norwich, CT and Juarez, Mexico, and have limited current production to those products not requiring packaged antiseptics. We expect production in those two facilities to return to normal within two to three weeks. Shipments of products which do not contain packaged antiseptics manufactured in Charlotte resumed this morning.

We deeply regret any inconvenience caused to our customers by this closing. As always, our sales team is available to assist you in any way possible. We look forward to continuing our history of providing high quality procedural kits to the healthcare market.

Should you require further information, please call our customer service department at (800) 882-4553 for east coast customers and (800) 882-4473 for west coast customers.