ABAXIS allies with Veterinary Centers of America; completes installation of largest single order of VetScan units

Business Wire, Sept 3, 1996

SUNNYVALE, Calif.--(HealthWire)--Sept. 3, 1996--Under an agreement with the Veterinary Centers of America ("VCA") (NASDAQ NM:VCAI), ABAXIS Inc. (NASDAQ NM:ABAX), a medical products company, Tuesday announced it has sold and completed the installation of 31 VetScan systems at VCA veterinary hospitals in various locations throughout the nation, marking ABAXIS' largest single order of VetScan systems to date.

With headquarters in Santa Monica, Calif., the Veterinary Centers of America owns and operates 166 free-standing animal hospitals, the largest hospital chain in the country. In addition, VCA also operates one of the nation's largest networks of veterinary-exclusive clinical diagnostic laboratories.

"The Veterinary Centers of America is the largest organization in the U.S. catering to the health of domestic animals and this initial order for VetScan adds a tremendous boost to our national marketing penetration efforts," said Clint H. Severson, ABAXIS' president and chief executive officer.

"We hope to become the standard in-hospital blood analysis system for the VCA animal hospitals nationwide, and we are pleased to have the opportunity to work closely with VCA to provide better services to the veterinary health delivery system.

"Ease of use and rapid, accurate test results make VetScan the system of choice for VCA and many other independent veterinarian practices. We hope to develop further alliances with VCA to potentially providing supplemental services to its laboratories as well."

VetScan is distributed in the United States by Vedco Inc., Premier Vet Supply, PCI Animal Health and Hawaii Vet Supplies. The 31-unit sale to VCA was placed directly by the internal ABAXIS sales and marketing team, who will continue to work closely with VCA to service and build on the newly established alliance.

This news release contains words that identify forward-looking statements which are made in reliance upon the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date hereof.

The future events described in such statements involve risks and uncertainties, among them, but not limited to, risks and uncertainties related to the market acceptance of its products and the continuing development of the company's products, including required FDA clearance and other governmental approvals, risks associated with manufacturing and distributing its products on a commercial scale, including complying with federal and state food and drug regulations, general market conditions, competition and other risks detailed from time to time in ABAXIS' SEC reports.

Founded in 1989, ABAXIS develops, manufactures and markets portable blood analysis systems for use in any patient-care setting to provide clinicians with rapid blood constituent measurements. The system consists of a compact, 6.9 kilogram, portable analyzer and a series of 8 cm diameter single-use plastic disks, called reagent discs, that contain all the reagents necessary to perform a fixed menu of tests.

The system can be operated with minimal training and perform multiple routine tests on whole blood using either venous or fingerstick samples. The system provides test results in less than 14 minutes with the precision and accuracy equivalent to a clinical laboratory.

CONTACT: ABAXIS Inc., Sunnyvale

Ting Lu, 408/745-6851

or

Pondel Parsons & Wilkinson, Los Angeles

Rob Whetstone, 310/207-9300

Internet: investor@pondel.com