Lawrence D. Stern, Chairman and CEO of Talecris, said, “Growing our plasma supply chain and updating our manufacturing facilities are both key to providing the increased supply of the life-enhancing therapies that our customers rely upon.  We have continued our significant investment in the vertical integration of our plasma supply chain and in the scheduled upgrades of our manufacturing facilities.  I am pleased at the progress we have made in taking the steps we need to ultimately increase the supply of our products.”  

This month, the company successfully completed scheduled maintenance and upgrades of its manufacturing facilities.  The planned activity was completed on time and on budget.  At its peak, the project required the assistance of approximately 850 contractors working around the clock to resume production as soon as possible.  The facility is now ramping up production in stages and should be fully operational in the next month.

As part of the company’s vertical integration of its plasma supply, Talecris has opened four new plasma collection centers throughout the United States in 2008, bringing the company’s total number of centers to 53.  The company has received FDA licenses for 11 of its centers this year, raising the total number of licensed centers to 42.  An additional 11 centers have been opened, three of them licensed, through Talecris’ strategic alliances with International BioResources and Plasma Centers of America, with all production dedicated to Talecris. In addition, 12 of our Talecris centers have been approved by the German Health Authority, or GHA, for two year certifications.

Recently, the company re-opened a plasma collection center in Tallahassee, Florida that had been temporarily closed for remediation earlier in the year.  At the same time, the company temporarily closed a plasma collection center in Colorado Springs, Colorado, to enable local upgrades to our quality processes.  According to Tom Lynch, Senior Vice President of Compliance and Quality for Talecris, “Temporarily closing the plasma center was the right decision.  We are committed to operating within our procedures and license to ensure the safety and efficacy of our life-enhancing therapies.”

Talecris has also made significant progress in its aggressive plan to automate its plasma collection centers.  The project is now 77 percent completed with a target of all centers being converted in the next several months.  This is significant since a fully automated plasma collection platform can better accommodate the increasing number of donors coming to our centers to donate plasma.

Plasma donated to Talecris centers provides the source material for the production of critical care protein therapies that treat people with life-threatening disorders in a variety of therapeutic areas, including immunology, pulmonology and hemostasis.  The current list of company-owned plasma collection center locations may be accessed at www.talecrisplasma.com/tpr_where.cfm.

Contact:
Wendy Wilson
Tel.: 919.316.2430, Fax: 919.316.6377
E-mail: wendy.wilson@talecris.com