Bloomington, Ind. – In order to make more innovative technology available to VHA and UHC members through its Novation agreement, Cook Incorporated has signed an expanded contract with Novation, the supply chain management company for VHA Inc. and University HealthSystem Consortium (UHC). The new agreement adds important new product areas to the contract, said Mike Hughes, director, corporate accounts, Cook Group Incorporated.

“Under one new agreement, Novation agreed to make Cook’s devices for managing thrombus, including vena cava filters and infusion catheters, available to its members, and a second agreement has added an expanded number of Cook products for peripheral vascular disease,” Hughes explained. “These agreements will be in effect for 24 months and will make substantially more Cook products available to VHA and UHC members.”

All products listed are produced and marketed by Cook Incorporated’s diagnostic and interventional product division, Hughes added.

Based in Irving, Tex., Novation was established in January 1998 through a combination of the supply programs of VHA and UHC, two national health care alliances. Novation serves the purchasing needs of more than 2,400 members and affiliates of VHA and UHC. Novation also serves more than 5,400 members and clients of HealthCare Purchasing Partners International (HPPI), another group purchasing organization owned by VHA and UHC. The leading supply chain management company in health care, Novation manages more than $21 billion in annual purchases for VHA, UHC and HPPI members. For more information, go to www.novationco.com.

With international headquarters in Bloomington, Ind., privately held COOK® (www.cookgroup.com) is a leading designer, manufacturer and global distributor of minimally invasive medical device technology for diagnostic and therapeutic procedures. Since its founding in 1963, Cook has created innovative technologies for stents and stent-grafts, catheters, wire guides, introducer needles and sheaths, embolization coils, tissue-engineered medical biomaterials, vena cava filters, implanted cardiac lead extraction equipment and other minimally invasive medical devices.