Acquisition marks Inverness' quest to become the leader in women's health care worldwide

Boston, MA — December 20, 2001 — Covington Associates, seasoned M & A advisors to technology and healthcare, today announced that its client, Waltham-based Inverness Medical Innovations, Inc., ("Inverness"), has acquired Unipath Ltd., part of U.K. consumer products giant Unilever. This marks the second transaction in less than one month involving Inverness and its previous parent company Inverness Medical Technology, Inc. and Covington Associates. In November 2001, Covington Associates advised Inverness Medical Technology, Inc. in its sale to Johnson & Johnson for $1.3 billion.

The acquisition positions Inverness-publicly traded on the American Exchange under "IMA"-to rapidly expand their global women's health and nutritional products businesses and add to Inverness' intellectual property portfolio. The approximately $150 million cross-border transaction was financed through a combination of debt and equity. As part of the transaction, Covington Associates played a dual role, serving as Inverness' M & A advisor as well as acting as the arranger of $70 million of senior and mezzanine debt.

Speaking on behalf of Covington Associates, Tom Cibotti, partner in the firm, said "We have enjoyed working with Inverness and its CEO Ron Zwanziger whose forward-looking entrepreneurial vision offers a great deal of opportunity and excitement for the future. Our involvement with Inverness extends beyond these two recent deals, as we have worked together for many years now and have built a long-term and seamless working relationship. We advised Inverness when selling its diabetes business to Johnson & Johnson and were in action almost immediately thereafter, advising the Company on this purchase of Unipath, another world-class, multi-national healthcare concern. We are pleased that we have forged such a strong relationship with Inverness and look forward to continued mutual successes.

The Unipath business, generating nearly $90 million in annual revenues, extends Inverness' manufacturing, distribution and R&D reach into Europe via the ClearBlue™- and ClearPlan™- branded home pregnancy and ovulation testing products. In addition, Inverness acquires from Unipath certain monoclonal assets and intellectual property rights, as well as facilities in Bedford, England, U.S. marketing and sales operations in Princeton, NJ, and offices in Germany, Holland, France and Sweden that employ over 500 people in total.

In a previously issued statement, Ron Zwanziger, CEO of Inverness Medical Innovations, said "We have this week added a company that is one of the true pioneers and world leaders in women's health consumer diagnostics. This acquisition is an integral financial and operational step in our quest to become the leading provider of a broad, integrated array of technologically advanced medical devices and other products for the promotion and care of healthier living."

About Inverness Medical Innovations
Inverness Medical Innovations manufactures and sells products for the women's health market, and is engaged in the business of developing, acquiring, manufacturing, and marketing advanced medical device technologies. The Company is presently exploring new opportunities for its proprietary electrochemical and other technologies in a variety of consumer oriented applications including immuno-diagnostics with a focus on women's health and cardiology. The Company's women's health and nutritional products are distributed to consumers through established retail distribution networks such as Wal-Mart, Walgreens and CVS. Inverness is led by the team that took the former Inverness Medical Technology, recently acquired by Johnson & Johnson, to a leadership position in the field of blood glucose monitoring and diabetes self-management, and is headquartered in Waltham, Massachusetts.

About Covington Associates
Covington Associates are seasoned M & A advisors to technology and healthcare. Focused exclusively on mergers and acquisitions, Covington Associates has established a track record of success based on deep domain experience and an unrivaled level of service from a team of senior advisors. Since 1991, the firm has successfully completed over 50 transactions ranging in size from $10 million to over $1 billion in e-services, software, IT services, and healthcare technologies. To learn more about Covington Associates, visit www.covingtonassociates.com



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