Press Release

WOONSOCKET, R.I., and WALTHAM, Mass., Aug. 4 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- CVS Caremark (NYSE: CVS) and Inverness Medical Innovations (NYSE: IMA), through its Alere health management business, today announced a strategic alliance which will enhance the companies' ability to deliver more timely, highly coordinated and personalized health management services. The companies said the alliance will improve participants' health care outcomes while helping payers and employers more efficiently manage costs. This can be achieved as participants are engaged through multiple delivery channels - including convenient and less costly venues like retail clinics.

The alliance means chronically ill patients served by CVS Caremark's Accordant Common disease management programs will be managed and have access to expanded offerings provided by Alere, a leader in health services for wellness, disease management, oncology and complex case management.

Alere customers will gain access to direct service by MinuteClinic retail health clinic nurse practitioners and CVS pharmacists. Customers of both companies will have access to a broad array of services ranging from those provided through the high touch, in-home monitoring, telephonic and web-based offerings of Alere, to the face-to-face counseling provided at approximately 500 MinuteClinics and nearly 7,000 CVS/pharmacy locations around the country.

"This alliance strengthens the clinical options we offer our customers," said Dr. Troyen Brennan, Executive Vice President and Chief Medical Officer of CVS Caremark. "Our patients gain access to Alere's expanded suite of services, such as wellness, prevention and health management programs. These also include programs tailored to meet the needs of women and children. Alere's customers will benefit from direct access to our nurse practitioners at MinuteClinic and CVS pharmacists at our retail stores."

Recent studies have shown participants benefit from management of more serious illnesses through face-to-face interaction with health care providers. CVS Caremark has integrated retail pharmacy, pharmacy benefit management and the retail clinic businesses and developed Proactive Pharmacy Care to take advantage of the unmatched consumer touch points provided through its stores and clinics.

"This strategic alliance creates a first in the health management space, a more direct connection for participants between proven health management programs and their trusted providers in CVS pharmacies," said Ron Geraty, CEO of Alere. "This extends our reach, offering even more face-to-face and personalized services while at the same time allowing us to develop a close working relationship with the largest pharmacy health care company in the U.S."

This alliance will allow for more timely, coordinated and personalized disease management, by improving communications. For example, if an Alere nurse identifies a patient with heart disease who is not taking medications as prescribed, or who is not taking medicine for a common co-morbid condition, the nurse will communicate that gap in care to a retail CVS pharmacist or MinuteClinic nurse practitioner, when the patient is scheduled to pick up a prescription or needs a test or screening at a clinic. The patient will be counseled to take action to improve their care by the appropriate provider.

While CVS Caremark is evolving its clinical offerings to leverage MinuteClinic locations to provide wellness, prevention and chronic illness management, the new alliance with Alere expands available clinical services even further. The expanded offerings can be made available to other customers and health plans as well, because the agreement is non-exclusive for both companies.

In addition, the two companies, in accordance with appropriate state and federal laws, can link claims data through shared technology to improve and promote disease management and medication adherence efforts. The alliance can deliver information that clients can use to be engaged and make informed health care decisions.

The strategic alliance does not affect patients receiving service from Accordant Rare Disease Management business.

About CVS Caremark

CVS Caremark is the largest provider of prescriptions in the nation. The Company fills or manages more than 1 billion prescriptions annually. Through its unmatched breadth of service offerings, CVS Caremark is transforming the delivery of health care services in the U.S. The Company is uniquely positioned to effectively manage costs and improve health care outcomes through its more than 6,900 CVS/pharmacy and Longs Drugs stores; its Caremark Pharmacy Services division (pharmacy benefit management, mail order and specialty pharmacy); its retail-based health clinic subsidiary, MinuteClinic; and its online pharmacy, CVS.com. General information about CVS Caremark is available through the Investor Relations section of the Company's Web site, at www.cvscaremark.com/investors, as well as through the press room section of the Company's Web site, at www.cvscaremark.com/newsroom.

About Inverness Medical Innovations

By developing new capabilities in near-patient diagnosis, monitoring and health management, Inverness Medical Innovations enables individuals to take charge of improving their health and quality of life at home. Inverness' global leading products and services, as well as its new product development efforts, focus on infectious disease, cardiology, oncology, drugs of abuse and women's health. Inverness is headquartered in Waltham, Massachusetts. For additional information on Inverness Medical Innovations, please visit www.invmed.com.

About Alere

Alere, a Latin verb, meaning "to care for" or "to support", offers the most patient-centered health management services available from a single provider in the industry. Alere services provide health interventions that are designed for the entire lifespan from pre-cradle (high-risk pregnancy and NICU management) to end-of-life care (complex care) as well as the continuum of health from wellness (health and productivity programs) and prevention to total health management of the individual for those having various chronic illnesses. For additional information on Alere, please visit www.alere.com.