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August 5, 1999
MEDIAPOLIS BUILDS SEAMLESS COMMERCE ENGINE AND DATABASE INFRASTRUCTURE FOR YOURPHARMACY.COM, INC, New York City, NY-August 5, 1999-- Creating a seamless system for the safe and convenient fulfillment of prescriptions online, Mediapolis, inc. has engineered a pair of groundbreaking Internet sites for yourPharmacy.com, Inc., an emerging leader in online pharmacy commerce and consumer drug and healthcare information. The e-commerce site, yourPharmacy.com (http://www.yourPharmacy.com), is an online pharmacy which recently celebrated its grand opening as the first "consumer-ready" online pharmacy and is already establishing itself as a popular destination for health-related commerce activity. The second informational site, DrugDigest.org (http://www.DrugDigest.org), also recently marked its grand opening. Mediapolis, inc. is an interactive media company dedicated to applying its extensive experience in software design and systems analysis to create high volume, peak performance Web sites that run efficiently and are easily maintained. yourPharmacy is the first consumer-ready online pharmacy, allowing customers to order prescription and over-the-counter medicines, herbs and vitamins, health and beauty aids and related products. Through privileged relationships with thousands of major employers, managed care organizations, and third-party administrators, yourPharmacy is uniquely able to honor the drug insurance plans used by tens of millions of Americans, enabling cost-effective, hassle-free shopping. Using a fulfillment system that has safely filled mail order prescriptions for over a decade, yourPharmacy is already establishing itself as a trusted partner of physicians, pharmacists, third-party payers, and consumers in providing a safe, convenient and economical pharmacy environment. For consumers lacking drug insurance, the site's unique low-price guarantee offers the promise of significant savings on expensive prescription medications. DrugDigest is a companion drug and healthcare information site also engineered by Mediapolis. Produced with content developed by physicians, clinical pharmacists and consumer advocates, DrugDigest is the most comprehensive source of non-commercial, fact-based health and medical information on the Internet. It helps consumers make informed choices about their condition and treatment by offering searchable information on drugs, common medical conditions, treatment, and research, as well as discussion groups, personalized "e-bulletins" and a confidential "Ask the Pharmacist" feature. Alan Emtage, chief technical officer of Mediapolis, said the firm used its proprietary development environment, called Iowa, to build an efficient and accurate e-commerce engine within the complex yourPharmacy system. "In engineering yourPharmacy, we had to consider everything from commerce to content management to transaction management to administration," Emtage said. "The challenge was to build a back end that could integrate massive amounts of data on pharmaceuticals and patients while it coordinates transactions," he added. "At the same time, the consumer experience had to be seamless. Our Iowa system not only accomplished all of that, but can also grow organically as the site expands." Created by Mediapolis, Iowa is a Web publishing environment that simplifies the creation and maintenance of large scale Web sites through the sophisticated integration of industry-standard hardware, operating systems and applications. Its unique database structures and template-driven presentation synchronize with software and hardware modules to make it easily scalable at typical Web site bottlenecks. Iowa has been built from the ground up to deliver high performance and high availability Web serving at a fraction of the cost of other systems. "Along with technical concerns, we also wanted to create a highly secure transaction environment so that yourPharmacy's customers can order with confidence, knowing that their private medical information is protected," Emtage said. "It's also the most effective, efficient management system like this, and it's completely scalable." Iowa was suitable for yourPharmacy.com, Inc. according to Gregg Rotenberg, the company's president. "We found it to be a fast and efficient development tool. It allowed us to develop our websites on a compressed schedule without compromising functionality or security," he said. According to Emtage, Mediapolis' engineering of the site includes:
About Mediapolis, inc. Initially working out of a small, converted bedroom, Carl Pritzkat, Michael Rhodes and Tony Travostino founded Mediapolis in 1994. In just five years, Mediapolis has developed Web sites for over 70 clients across the world, including Sony Music, CultureFinder.com, BMG Entertainment, Windham Hill Records, and Novartis. Mediapolis doubled its revenue in 1998, continuing a double-digit growth trend for the fourth consecutive year. With a rapidly growing staff, Mediapolis recently expanded into a new, significantly larger Seventh Avenue office.
About yourPharmacy.com, Inc. Express Scripts is the nation's leading independent full-service pharmacy benefit management and specialty managed care company, serving thousands of clients throughout North America and managing more than $9 billion in annualized drug spending, excluding $3 billion in annualized drug spending for United HealthCare Corp. More information can be found at http://www.express-scripts.com. This press release contains forward-looking statements, including, but not limited to, statements related to Express Scripts' plans, objectives, expectations (financial and otherwise) or intentions. The company's actual results may differ significantly from those projected or suggested in any forward-looking statements. Certain factors relating to the announced online site that might cause such a difference to occur include, but are not limited to, the regulation of online drug stores, ability to contract with a number of business partners, and other industry factors. Other general factors that may impact these forward-looking statements include heightened competition; changes in pricing or discount practices of pharmaceutical manufacturers; the ability of the company to consummate contract negotiations with prospective clients; competition in the bidding and proposal process; adverse results in certain litigation and regulatory matters; lower than expected sales and revenue growth; the adoption of adverse legislation or a change in the interpretation of existing legislation or regulations; risks associated with the development of new products; risks associated with the "Year 2000" issue, including the ability of the company to successfully convert its information systems and its non-information systems, and the ability of its vendors/trading partners to successfully convert their systems to accommodate dates beyond December 31,1999; and other risks described from time to time in the company's public filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The company does not undertake any obligation to release publicly any revisions to such forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.
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