D.Logistics AG and Global Healthcare Exchange, LLC (GHX LLC) today announced a merger of their respective European operations: PLC GmbH (PLC) and Global Healthcare Exchange BVBA (GHX BVBA). D. Logistics and GHX LLC will each own 50 percent of the newly formed company, which will be called Global Healthcare Exchange Europe GmbH. The combined operation will serve more than 450 hospitals and 70 suppliers in Germany, the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Austria and Belgium, making it Europe’s largest electronic trading exchange for healthcare, both in terms of the number of participants and countries served. As an independent exchange, GHX Europe will benefit both hospitals and suppliers.

“As one company, we will continue to operate an open and neutral exchange, while enhancing our ability to meet customer needs,” says Norbert Kruchen, current PLC general manager who will serve as chief executive officer of GHX Europe. Existing and future customers will be able to conduct e-commerce with more trading partners through a single exchange portal, avoiding the costs associated with establishing multiple connections.

"This merger is exactly what the European healthcare market needs and what my organization has been waiting for," says Detlef Bruer with operative purchasing, the Department of Human Medicine, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen. "With one exchange offering, we now have a clear choice as to the e-commerce solution that can deliver the most value now and in the future."

Frank Brueggemann, chief operating officer of GHX Europe and the current GHX BVBA sales and marketing director in Germany, says, “We can effectively increase the scope of hospital and supplier participation in a single e-procurement solution because there was little duplication among the customer base or geographic markets of the two companies.”

“Over the past several years, both GHX and PLC have been working on parallel tracks to deliver on the same market promise: a more efficient healthcare supply chain,” says Dr. Meinrad Lugan, member of the board of directors of B. Braun Melsungen AG, Germany. “Each company provides valuable technology solutions. Together, they have an opportunity to eliminate redundancy and improve business processes for all participants.”

PLC and GHX BVBA began working together more than a year ago, when they established electronic connectivity between their two exchanges. In May 2003, the international analyst firm Frost & Sullivan said GHX’s “willingness to work with other companies to achieve joint objectives” was important at this stage of the e-procurement market. (Frost & Sullivan Report on eProcurement in the Healthcare Markets – Focus on Europe, May 2003)

In the near term, suppliers and hospitals currently participating in either GHX BVBA or PLC will continue to conduct business through the respective exchanges as they have in the past. Over the next few months, GHX Europe will fully develop the plan to merge the two exchanges into one, retaining the best technology, products, and services provided by the original companies.

Strategic guidance for the new company will be provided by an advisory board comprised of both hospital and supplier representatives. GHX Europe will remain a privately held company open to all supply chain participants, with clear guiding principles and a business model designed to improve supply chain efficiencies for all involved.

About Global Healthcare Exchange BVBA
Global Healthcare Exchange BVBA (www.ghx.com) is a neutral trading exchange through which hospitals can purchase both medical and non-medical products more easily, quickly and accurately than ever before. GHX is open to all members of the supply chain, with a product range specifically adapted to the requirements of large, mid-sized and small suppliers and hospitals alike. Founded in March 2000, GHX is a privately held company whose equity ownership reflects all partners in the healthcare supply chain. Equity owners of GHX include Johnson & Johnson; GE Medical Systems; Baxter International, Inc.; Abbott Laboratories; Medtronic, Inc.; Amerisource Bergen Corporation; B. Braun Medical Inc.; Becton, Dickinson and Company; Boston Scientific Corporation; Cardinal Health, Inc.; C.R. Bard, Inc.; Fisher Scientific International Inc.; Guidant Corporation; McKesson Corporation; Siemens Medical Solutions; Tyco International, Ltd.; as well as buying organisations Premier, Inc. and HCA.

About PLC GmbH
A leading service provider for electronic data communications in healthcare, PLC GmbH (www.plc-net.de) was founded in January 1999 and offers a communications network for active electronic communications between more than 60 suppliers, medical and pharmaceutical wholesalers as well as more than 320 hospitals over Europe (including those using the SEDICO inventory management and pharmaceutical transaction systems). PLC Net supports the necessary reconciliation of the hospitals' item master, electronic purchase orders, the upload of purchase order acknowledgements, delivery notes and invoices as well as external requisitions (i.e. data generated via SEDICO-scanner). In October 2003, PLC Net transmitted more than 19.500 purchasing transactions.

About D.Logistics AG
D.Logistics (www.dlogistics.com) is a holding company whose subsidiaries offer logistics and logistics-related services that are largely provided on a customer- and project-specific basis. The group has more than 3,550 employees worldwide and generated a turnover of € 343 million in the year 2002.

D.Logistics optimises the whole logistics chain. The group has extensive know-how in the fields of consumer- and industrial goods packaging, warehouse logistics and value-added services. The subsidiaries implement logistic concepts and customised solutions for all industry sectors and in different magnitudes worldwide. The main sectors in focus are automotive, chemicals, health care, consumer goods and mechanical engineering.

For detailed information please contact:

Karen Conway
Global Healthcare Exchange
11000 Westmoor Circle, Suite 400
Westminster, CO 80021
719-488-0359 Monument Office
720-887-7215 Denver Office (Voice Mail)
303-564-2147 Cell
720-887-7099 Fax kconway@ghx.com www.ghx.com

Susana Galindo-Gil
PLC GmbH
Paracelsusstrasse 15
51375 Leverkusen
Germany
Telephone: +49-214-876 34-53
Fax: +49-214-876 34-20
sgalindo-gil@plc-net.de
www.plc-net.de