Bayer Diagnostics announced the upcoming launch of Ascensia as the new global brand identity for its Glucometer diabetes franchise, that facilitates day-to-day diabetes management. Under the Ascensia brand name, Bayer will expand its portfolio launching new products, programs and services over the next several months.

The announcement was made in conjunction with the American Diabetes Association (ADA) 62nd annual meeting. The launch of Ascensia further supports Bayer's heritage of helping people with diabetes live their life to its full potential.

Ascensia means to 'ascend and achieve.' The complete range of Ascensia diabetes products and services will be designed to help patients do just that -- riseabove their disease to experience life's many possibilities. This unique approach is called "Your Life. Your Way." This approach reflects Bayer Diagnostic's dedication to the principle that Ascensia products and services will help people define their lives in terms of their goals and achievements -- not their diabetes.

"The name 'Ascensia' means to ascend and achieve," said Joe Malta, vice president, Self-Test Business, Bayer Diagnostics. "Naming the diabetes portfolio 'Ascensia' coincides with the paradigm shift in the diabetes community, in which new emphasis is being placed on the central role of the patient - the empowered patient - partnering with their health care professionals to control their diabetes. Ascensia will offer a full range of services and products that support this empowerment process. We call this approach "Your Life. Your Way."

Bayer pioneered the concept of self-management with the introduction of the first portable blood glucose meter and strips in 1969. Since that time, the value of active monitoring has been universally recognized, with the official position of the ADA stating that all patients "should be taught how to use the data to adjust medical nutrition therapy, exercise, or pharmacological therapy to achieve specific glycemic goals." Ascensia initiatives will offer products and services further expanding the role of glucose monitoring, in keeping with the growing trend of positioning the patient as the cornerstone of his or her treatment regimen.

This shift from professional to patient self-management grows out of studies in the 1990's that confirmed tight control over glucose levels reduces the most serious complications of diabetes. The way to achieve that control begins with monitoring blood glucose levels regularly. However, data collected from the third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES III) showed that between 1988 and 1994 only 5% of patients monitored even once a day. By 1998, that figure was up to 44% but still less than half the patients were monitoring routinely.

Diabetes professionals concluded the problem was that diabetes was being managed like an acute disease where the professional was in control, as opposed to a chronic condition where the patient needs to be in charge. As recently reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association, "More than 95% of diabetes care is done by the patient." And, promoting patient self-directed behavior change, the American Association of Diabetes Educators (AADE) says, "Empowerment is helping people discover and use their own innate ability to gain mastery over their diabetes." The Ascensia franchise will develop new products and services that support this empowerment process.

Bayer Diagnostics' current line of diabetes related products include Glucometer DEX 2, Glucometer Elite and Glucometer Elite XL systems, and WinGlucofacts diabetes management software. These products will be renamed with the Ascensia brand starting October 1, 2002.