CDISC ANNOUNCES CALL FOR NEW MEMBERS

Leading companies in pharmaceutical, biotech, device industries
and regulatory work together to establish global data standards

AUSTIN, Texas – 11 March 2003 -- The Clinical Data Interchange Standards Consortium (CDISC) recently announced a call for new members, as well as an opportunity for current members to upgrade their membership category. CDISC currently has more than 90 members, including the majority of the major global pharmaceutical companies.

Companies that join or upgrade by April 18, 2003 will get back 10 percent of their first year dues in education credits for their organization. These credits can be used to attend any CDISC-sponsored public or in-house courses during the next 12 months.

There are four levels of membership available: Corporate Benefactor, Corporate Sponsor, Corporate Member and Associate Member. Dues vary based on the size of the company. Among other benefits are reduced cost for education and CDISC-sponsored meetings. In addition, Benefactors and Sponsors are voting members with representation on the CDISC Industry Advisory Board, which advises CDISC on strategy.

Interested parties should contact Shirley Williams, CDISC Director of Operations, via email at swilliams@cdisc.org or by phone at 512.341.9885 to join. Details on membership levels and benefits are available on the CDISC website at http://www.cdisc.org/membership/index.html.

CDISC members work together to establish universally accepted data standards in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and device industries, as well as in regulatory agencies worldwide.

"CDISC continues to gain momentum toward achieving industry standards," said Steve Ruberg, CDISC Board Chairman and Director, Clinical Data Technology and Services, Eli Lilly & Company. "While membership and support has grown considerably, CDISC is continuing to seek broader support and involvement in the process of developing industry standards. The more and broader the input, the more useful will be the standards across the industry."

"On behalf of CDISC, I'd like to sincerely thank all of our current members and volunteers. They're the ones who have made CDISC such a success," said Frank Newby, Vice President, Education and Member Relations for CDISC. "This is an ideal time for those considering joining CDISC to do so. By joining on or before April 18, they can take advantage of the 'education credit' offer.”

CDISC is an open, multidisciplinary, non-profit organization committed to the development of worldwide standards to support the electronic acquisition, exchange, submission and archiving of clinical trials data and metadata for medical and biopharmaceutical product development. The CDISC mission is to lead the development of global, vendor-neutral, platform-independent standards to improve data quality and accelerate product development in the pharmaceutical industry. For more information about CDISC, visit the website at http://www.cdisc.org.

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For more company information contact:
Shirley Williams, Director of Operations , swilliams@cdisc.org

Frank Newby, Vice President – Education and Member Relations, fnewby@cdisc.org

Rebecca Kush, President, rkush@cdisc.org

Press contacts:
Frank Newby, Vice President – Education and Member Relations, fnewby@cdisc.org
Carol Cain, NourzAds Advertising, 512.391.1773, carol@nourzads.com

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