Criterium Press Releases

Contact: Arthur Gonick, Public Relations
(518) 583-0095
aigonick@criteriuminc.com

Criterium, Inc. Opens Office in Israel
(New York- 7 June 2007) – Criterium, Inc. announced today that it has opened a regional office in Israel for new business development and servicing clinical research clients. The contact information for this office is:

Address: Dam Hamacabim 5 Yavne, 81502, Israel Telephone: Israel: 052-6284253; International: 011-972-52-6284253 Contact: Ayelet Bar-Dov, Clinical Liaison/ Business Development Associate Email: abardov@criteriuminc.com

Ms. Bar-Dov comes to Criterium with an extensive sales and marketing background, with notable experience as a Regional Sales Representative for Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd., which is Israel’s oldest pharmaceutical development company. In that capacity, she represented Teva’s products for diverse therapeutic areas including cardiovascular, hypertension, and diabetes products. Ms. Bar-Dov is a graduate of Tel-Aviv University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology.

This new office extends Criterium’s worldwide clinical trials capabilities throughout Israel, which is emerging as a fast growing area for initiation of innovative clinical research. Criterium’s global full service contract research resources will be offered by Criterium Israel to medical device, pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies located in that country.

Israel's popularity as a site for clinical trials increased rapidly after the country received FDA recognition as an approved site for FDA clinical trials in 1997. As a result, Israel has experienced a dramatic increase in the number of international companies that are looking to set up joint venture manufacturing, research and testing facilities in that country. Among the reasons cited by international companies for carrying out clinical trials in Israel are:

• The ease of rapidly recruiting and following patient populations for many therapeutic areas. The country is small, all citizens carry an identity card, there is an effective national health insurance program and 80 percent of the entire population belongs to the same health maintenance organization (HMO), Kupat Holim. That means that Israeli clinical trials can be started and completed much more quickly, giving a potential partner an edge over competitors that are based solely in European or American sites.
• Israel has one of the world's most skilled and educated work forces, with more doctors, scientists and engineers per capita than any other nation.

To date, the primary focus of Israeli Life Sciences development has been in the Medical Device sector, followed by Biotechnology and Pharmaceutical development companies. The leading therapeutic areas that these companies focus on include cardiovascular and peripheral vascular disease, oncology, neurodegenerative disease, and other age related disease area such as ophthalmology and orthopedics.

“All of us at Criterium, Inc. are excited about welcoming Ayelet Bar- Dov and this new regional office”, commented Ronny K. Schnel, Executive Director for Business Development and Client Services for Criterium, Inc., “These valuable additions are further evidence that Criterium is aggressively cultivating global intelligence to give further support to an already high-performing worldwide team. Our clients are benefiting from our expanded global ability to rapidly recruit patients for their studies. When combined with our customized technology mix to assure the timeliest flow of trial data, the outcomes are creative solutions that are on-time and on-budget. You can count on us to always deliver!”

About Criterium, Inc.:

With headquarters in Saratoga Springs, N.Y., and offices worldwide, Criterium is a small global technology-based contract research organization that offers a unique mix of high-quality, innovative clinical-research solutions and communications tools to manage the entire clinical-research process from initial planning to approval. The biopharmaceutical, pharmaceutical, medical-device, and CRO industries benefit from Criterium’s expertise, high-value services and products, and high-end results. Founded in 1991, Criterium’s services are customized to fit each client’s specific needs, providing a seamless flow of data and information from the investigative site through Criterium back to the sponsor.