PLYMOUTH MEETING, Pa. – July 29, 2008 – SDI, the leader in innovative healthcare analytics announced today that it has acquired Verispan, a top provider of healthcare information and services. The acquisition creates the healthcare industry’s most comprehensive de-identified longitudinal database serving the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, medical device, medical/surgical, hospital, pharmacy, financial, payer, consumer packaged goods and government healthcare market segments, among others.

The addition of the Verispan product and service portfolio uniquely positions SDI to offer an unmatched solution suite for clients, including the pharmaceutical and healthcare sectors that are under tremendous, ongoing pressure to reduce costs and improve outcomes. The acquisition brings together SDI’s industry-leading custom patient-level data analytics with Verispan’s comprehensive syndicated patient-level data and audit-based analytic solutions; healthcare lists and profiles; and marketing services.

“The acquisition of Verispan is an important element of our growth strategy, and it extends our ability to meet client needs throughout the entire spectrum of healthcare data and analyses,” said Andrew Kress, CEO of SDI. “We consider this an important milestone toward our goal of continuing to deploy innovative next-generation healthcare analytic products and services. The industry recognizes that superior client service has always been a hallmark of both SDI and Verispan, and we will ensure a seamless transition for our customers as we integrate the industry-leading products and services from the two companies.”

Verispan, based in Yardley, Pa., is a strategic addition to SDI’s healthcare data and analytics business. The acquisition will expand both companies’ current customer base and market penetration and will ensure responsiveness to evolving market needs with actionable data. Clients will benefit from an unequaled breadth of patient-level analytics capabilities and expertise that include: tracking of pharmaceutical and device utilization, targeting and compensation products, marketing effectiveness studies, market research audits, healthcare profiles, comprehensive managed care offerings, data integration services, data warehousing and mining, healthcare lists and profile services, clinical data collection programs, clinical trial investigator targeting and protocol evaluation, patient therapymanagement pharmacy programs, and marketing services programs.

About SDI
Since 1982, SDI has been delivering the most innovative healthcare data products and analytic services on the market to the pharmaceutical, biotech, healthcare, medical device, and consumer packaged goods industries. SDI is a leading provider of de-identified patient-level data, as well as realtime localized disease and treatment surveillance and modeling data. SDI takes a consultative approach to designing the best analyses for its clients, combined with expert study execution and analytical expertise to produce superior insights. Its current roster of client companies in the pharmaceutical/biotech sector includes all of the top 20 firms. For more information visit www.sdihealth.com or call 610.834.0800.

About Verispan
Verispan, originally formed as a healthcare informatics joint venture of Quintiles Transnational Corp. and McKesson Corporation, provides a broad array of information products and services to virtually all of the top 50 pharmaceutical companies and the healthcare industry in general, including sales targeting and compensation products; market research audits; healthcare profiles; comprehensive managed care offerings; data integration, warehousing and mining; data analysis and consulting; direct mail; and list services;, among many others. Headquartered in Yardley, Pa., Verispan employs nearly 500 dedicated healthcare information professionals. The company's Web site is www.verispan.com.