Recent Announcements

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Sermo Physician Community Launches - Marks New Era for Bedside Observation

Physicians pool observations through exclusive online system to accelerate the emergence of trends and new insights on medications, devices and treatments

Cambridge, MA - Sept. 26, 2006 - Sermo, the fastest growing online community, created by physicians for physicians, launched today, unveiling a ground-breaking way for medical doctors (MDs) to consult with hundreds of colleagues, instantly, to achieve better outcomes for patients in their care. Sermo enables the private and instant exchange of knowledge among MDs - from all specialties and in all areas of the country - through an elite online medium where they can aggregate observations from their daily practice and instantly share them with a large network of colleagues to challenge or corroborate the opinions - accelerating the emergence of trends and new insights on medications, devices and treatments.

On Sermo, physicians instantly exchange knowledge and answer questions in a secure environment free of outside influence and gain insights from colleagues as they happen, rather than waiting to read about them in conventional media sources. Sermo enables physicians to strengthen their expertise through the discussion of new clinical findings, reports on unusual events and work together to dramatically impact patient care through collective wisdom. Sermo is built on the premise that large numbers of "inside experts," in this instance, practicing physicians, are better at solving problems and predicting future events than a single individual or even a small group of experts. The result for physicians is better patient care and improved outcomes through earlier interventions.

"As we continue to witness the trend toward outpatient care in America's healthcare system, physicians have lost everyday opportunities to share ideas and compare experiences. This form of collaborative wisdom has long been a fixture in medicine, but grand rounds, the doctors' lounge and even the cafeteria - the usual medium for this exchange - are distant memories," said Founder and CEO, Daniel Palestrant, MD. "Sermo provides a mechanism for making better, faster decisions based on real-world insights and feedback. Now, even an MD in the most remote of locations can benefit from instantaneous collaboration from thousands of colleagues and their collective years of experience and insight."

Sermo's MD-Empowered Environment - a Remarkable Research Mechanism
Sermo creates an "information arbitrage" between its clients and the information its physician community generates. Sermo enables physicians to be financially rewarded for their astute observations and clinical insights by financial institutions who are finding Sermo to be a fresh and immediate stream of actionable information on emerging trends and market-changing events in healthcare. For others in the healthcare industry such as pharmaceutical, biotech, medical device companies and payors, Sermo serves as a new research mechanism that harnesses the collective power of physicians' thinking. Sermo can accelerate the research process by early and broad discovery of products' effectiveness, or alternative uses with which MDs are experimenting. Such observations can then be validated through subsequent clinical trials - and implications for academic research and government sectors as early warning systems, or indicators of promising treatments, are numerous.

Pilot Results Indicate High Demand
During Sermo's pilot phase, several noteworthy events occurred. Some examples of physician-posted observations to Sermo during the pilot phase included:

• Three physicians independently submitted the observation that a top statin (for high cholesterol) appears to cause nightmares. This insight was confirmed by 33% of physicians in a 750 person follow-up survey on Sermo. Physicians noted that when they switched patients to a different statin, the nightmares went away.
• Several physicians have noted that when their patients are put on a certain cardiac drug, their patients' psoriasis gets better.
• The observation that a commercially successful antifungal appears to be causing gold allergies (a life threatening problem) was confirmed by 10% of physicians.

"Sermo is a unique and excellent tool in a physician's armamentarium. It is refreshing to see a novel observation or ask a question of your peers and have almost instantaneous feedback and reflections of what he or she may have done in a similar circumstance - the corroboration is invaluable," said James Shoemaker, MD, a founding Sermo user. "In essence, Sermo allows physicians throughout the nation to talk around the "virtual water cooler" and share insights and observations - and thus, positively alter patient care - based on real examples, real insights and collective feedback. Sermo is now a part of my daily routine."

About Sermo
Founded in 2005 and introduced during a pilot phase in July 2006, Sermo is already the fastest growing online physician community. Its Web-based platform provides a medium for physicians to aggregate observations from daily practice then - rapidly and in large numbers - challenge or corroborate each other's opinions, accelerating the emergence of trends and new insights on medications, devices and treatments. Through Sermo, physicians exchange knowledge with each other the minute it is learned, and gain insights from colleagues as they happen instead of waiting to read about them in conventional media sources. Sermo harnesses the power of collective wisdom and enables physicians to discuss new clinical findings, report unusual events, and work together to dramatically impact patient care. For more information visit http://www.sermo.com.

- 30 -

Press Contact:
Chris Perkett or Heather Mosley
PerkettPR for Sermo
P: 781-834-5852 or 415-384-0113
E: sermo@perkettpr.com

Greg Shenk
Director of Communications
P: 617-497-1110
gshenk@sermo.com