Covance Promotes Luis T. Gutierrez, Jr. to President of Covance Commercialization Services

PRINCETON, N.J., Jan. 3 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Covance Inc. today announced the promotion of Luis Gutierrez to the new role of President of Covance Commercialization Services. Mr. Gutierrez previously served as Corporate Vice President and General Manager of Covance Market Access Services. Commercialization Services includes Covance's Periapproval Services, which manages large research studies on the use of pharmaceuticals after commercial launch, and Market Access Services, which conducts pharmacoeconomic and reimbursement research and manages programs to help patients and prescribers navigate the complex reimbursement environment.

"Collaboration between Periapproval and Market Access has already yielded unique and large market opportunities for Covance," said Joe Herring, Covance's Chief Executive Officer. "Under Luis' leadership, Market Access Services has been a star performer in the Covance portfolio over the past five years. We look forward to his contributions in leading these two businesses to maximize our delivery of integrated service offerings to our clients."

"Services requiring a unique combination of Covance's Periapproval Services and Market Access Services are among the fastest-growing for contract research organizations," Mr. Gutierrez said. "I am optimistic that we can continue to capitalize on joint opportunities in such areas as patient registries, pharmacoeconomic studies, outcomes assessments, reimbursement services, and safety programs. Our objectives are to help our biopharmaceutical clients gain greater insights on the safety, efficacy, and value of their products in actual clinical practice, while also facilitating patient access to the medications their physicians prescribe."

Mr. Gutierrez joined Covance in 1991 and assumed leadership of Covance Market Access Services in 1998. He serves on Covance's Global Leadership Council. Over the span of his 20-year career, Mr. Gutierrez has been closely involved with a wide range of issues affecting the development, evaluation, and ultimate dissemination of new medical technologies. He has advised most of the major pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies with respect to commercialization strategies for new products and he is a frequent speaker on health economics and related issues affecting the utilization of drug therapies in the marketplace. Mr. Gutierrez received a Bachelor of Arts degree, with honors, from Harvard University and a Master of Business Administration degree from Stanford University's Graduate School of Business.

Covance, with headquarters in Princeton, New Jersey, is one of the world's largest and most comprehensive drug development services companies with annual revenues greater than $1 billion, global operations in more than 20 countries, and more than 8,000 employees worldwide. Information on Covance's products and services, recent press releases, and SEC filings can be obtained through its website at http://www.covance.com/.

Statements contained in this press release, which are not historical facts, such as statements about prospective earnings, savings, revenue, operations, revenue and earnings growth and other financial results are forward-looking statements pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All such forward-looking statements including the statements contained herein regarding anticipated trends in the Company's business are based largely on management's expectations and are subject to and qualified by risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such statements. These risks and uncertainties include, without limitation, competitive factors, outsourcing trends in the pharmaceutical industry, levels of industry research and development spending, the Company's ability to continue to attract and retain qualified personnel, the fixed price nature of contracts or the loss of large contracts, risks associated with acquisitions and investments, the Company's ability to increase order volume, the pace of translation of orders into revenue in late-stage development services, difficulties or delays in integrating the business of Radiant and achieving anticipated efficiencies and synergies, and other factors described in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission including its Annual Report on Form 10-K and Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q. The Company undertakes no duty to update any forward-looking statement to conform the statement to actual results or changes in the Company's expectations.