July 5, 2006 – Boston, MA — Covington Associates LLC announced today that it acted as the exclusive sell-side advisor to Galt Associates, Inc. (“Galt”) in its sale to Cerner Corporation (NASDAQ: CERN), a leading supplier of healthcare information technology. The transaction is Covington’s second in the drug safety space, the first was the sale of Lincoln Technologies to Phase Forward, Inc. in 2005.

Galt Associates, based in Sterling, VA is a leading provider of safety and risk management solutions for pharmaceutical, medical device and biotechnology companies. Galt’s solutions help clients code, exchange and analyze adverse medical event data to more effectively comply with regulations. The acquisition of Galt with augment Cerner’s LifeSciences Portfolio, adding innovative solutions and services that use medial event data to monitor and manage the safety and efficacy of various therapies.

According to Renee Lewis, President and CEO of Galt Associates, “The integration of [Galt and Cerner] will ensure that our collective clients receive the most comprehensive solutions to improve safety and reduce risk throughout the entire pharmaceutical, development, commercialization, and administration process.”

Ben Dunn, a Managing Director at Covington Associates and lead advisor to Galt on the transaction, was quoted as saying “Cerner’s extensive access to quality data and its growing initiatives in the bio-pharma market provide an opportunity for Galt’s solutions to have a widespread impact across multiple sectors.”

About Galt Associates, Inc.
With more than a decade of experience, Galt is an international leader in helping clients manage risk through information. Galt’s evidence-based solutions integrate the recognized expertise of its medical and scientific personnel with innovative technologies to ensure timely answers to clients’ critical questions. This integrated approach allows Galt to deliver medical risk management and communication strategies that address the benefits and risks associated with the full range of medical therapies and interventions. Galt supports more than 70 pharmaceutical, medical device and biotechnology companies, as well as contract research organizations (CRO) and research institutions located throughout the U.S. and Europe. To learn more about Galt, please visitwww.drugsafety.com.

About Cerner Corporation
With more than 1,500 clients worldwide, Cerner is the leading supplier of healthcare information technology. Cerner’s LifeSciences division serves the growing market need for software, data and services to help drug development companies bring safe products to market. Cerner developed the industry-leading Health Facts(TM) solution, a data warehouse of more than 35 million clinical encounters, to aggregate confidential data to help draw meaningful relationships between pharmaceutical therapies and resulting clinical outcomes. To learn more about Cerner, please visit www.cerner.com.

About Covington Associates LLC
Covington Associates is a specialty investment banking firm founded in 1991 serving business service, consumer, industrial, healthcare and technology companies throughout the country. Focused on mergers and acquisitions, debt and equity capital raising, debt and equity restructuring, and strategic advisory assignments for middle market companies, Covington Associates has completed transactions ranging in value from $10 million to over $1 billion for both private and publicly traded companies. To learn more about Covington Associates, visit www.covingtonassociates.com.