THE AUSTRALIAN RED CROSS BLOOD SERVICE SELECTS ABBOTT'S ALINITY S SOLUTION FOR BLOOD AND PLASMA SCREENING

Abbott and the Australian Red Cross Blood Service extend 30-year partnership of providing safe, life-saving blood supply in Australia

ABBOTT PARK, Ill., Oct. 21, 2019 -- Abbott (NYSE: ABT) today announced the Australian Red Cross Blood Service (Australian Blood Service) has signed a multiple-year agreement for Abbott's most advanced blood and plasma screening technology, Alinity™ s System. The Australian Blood Service collects 1.5 million donations each year, providing a safe blood supply to 25 million Australians.

The agreement also includes Abbott's total lab automation solution, as well as its informatics and professional services. The Australian Blood Service staff will use AlinIQ™ AMS (Analyzer Management System), a product of AlinIQ Professional Services, to integrate data from multiple analyzers so staff can view it in one place, providing greater workflow efficiency and better quality control. The Alinity s system will help continuously process up to 600 tests per hour, while the lab automation solution will manage routine, manual tasks so staff can handle up to 3,600 samples per hour.

The adoption of Abbott's latest technologies allows the Australian Blood Service to bring the highest levels of efficiency to their operation. By updating Abbott's previous blood and plasma screening system with Alinity s, and adding total lab automation to their facilities, the Australian Blood Service will be able to further improve workflow practices and productivity.

"For the past 30 years, we've partnered with the Australian Blood Service to help ensure people in Australia have access to a safe blood supply," said Louis Morrone, vice president, Transfusion Medicine, Abbott. "By combining Abbott's latest advancements in blood and plasma screening with the benefits of automation and informatics technology customized to their organization, the Australian Blood Service can ensure the highest levels of quality to safeguard their blood supply for years to come."

About Alinity and AlinIQ

Abbott's Alinity family of harmonized solutions is unprecedented in the diagnostics and screening industries. The systems work together to address the challenges of using multiple testing platforms and simplifying diagnostic testing and blood and plasma screening. Alinity systems are designed to be more efficient – running more tests in less space, generating test results faster and minimizing human errors – while continuing to provide quality results. The availability of the Alinity systems and tests varies by geography. More information is available at abbott.com/alinity.

AlinIQ is a comprehensive offering, combining professional services and informatics solutions that can assist healthcare institutions to deliver greater overall productivity and clinical care efficiency with their existing resources. By taking a customized approach with each blood and plasma service, Abbott's professional services experts use proprietary information technology applications to continuously analyze data and develop insights that could improve an organization's performance.

About Abbott
Abbott is a global healthcare leader that helps people live more fully at all stages of life. Our portfolio of life-changing technologies spans the spectrum of healthcare, with leading businesses and products in diagnostics, medical devices, nutritionals and branded generic medicines. Our 103,000 colleagues serve people in more than 160 countries.

SOURCE Abbott

For further information: Abbott Media: Jessica Masuga, (224) 668-0650, Kim Modory, (224) 668-4696 or Abbott Financial: Laura Dauer, (224) 667-2299