Mississippi’s Medicaid program adds coverage for Aerocrine’s FeNO testing in asthma management following a new ATS guideline

Mississippi’s Medicaid program adds coverage for Aerocrine’s FeNO testing in
asthma management following a new ATS guideline

SOLNA, Sweden – 11 January, 2012 – Aerocrine AB (OMX Nordic Exchange: AERO)
today announced that Mississippi’s Medicaid program adds FeNO reimbursement
coverage, making 29 states plus the District of Columbia covering this
cost-effective test for managing asthma.

The state of Mississippi has included fractional exhaled nitric oxide (FeNO)
testing to the Medicaid fee schedule and will provide coverage and reimbursement
of CPT code 95012 Nitric oxide expired gas determination effective January 1,
2012. The policy change will have a positive effect on thousands of patients in
Mississippi.

Asthma is a chronic inflammatory disease of the airways that affects more than
300 million people worldwide, many of whom are children. FeNO is a marker of the
underlying airway inflammation associated with asthma, and Aerocrine has
developed a method to quickly measure this inflammation. Using a simple,
quantitative and cost-effective test, physicians can obtain information about
the patient’s airway inflammation within two minutes.

“The use of exhaled nitric oxide is a tool that will help us gain control of our
patients’ asthma symptoms and return them to a normal and active lifestyle
quicker than before,” said J. Marc Majure, M.D., chief, pediatric pulmonary
diseases, Blair E. Batson Children’s Hospital. “I applaud the Medicaid system
for recognizing FeNO’s utility in improving the quality of life for
Mississippians with asthma and for recognizing that it will be a cost-saving
measure in the long run by allowing us to be better stewards of our Medicaid
dollars."

Recently, the leading U.S. professional and scientific society for respiratory
diseases, the American Thoracic Society, published a clinical practice guideline
on the use and interpretation of FeNO in asthma management. ATS guidelines are
written to provide health care professionals with the latest standards of care
to ensure high-quality patient care and management. This ATS guideline
specifically recommends the use of FeNO to:

–      Diagnose the inflammation causing the most common type of asthma, as well
as to provide objective information to improve the diagnosis of asthma

–      Determine whether patients with chronic respiratory symptoms will respond
to corticosteroid treatment, the most commonly used anti-inflammatory medicine

–      Monitor airway inflammation in patients with asthma and to monitor
patients’ adherence to prescribed corticosteroid therapy

“The quality of evidence in the literature, in combination with the ATS
guideline, is the reason insurance plans are now reviewing their policies,” said
Dr. Kathy Rickard of Aerocrine. “For any patient with asthma, and specifically
when it comes to children, steroid therapy should be used when it is needed, and
the most cost-effective way to test for airway inflammation and the need for
steroids is with Aerocrine’s NIOX MINO FeNO device.”

“To now have a biomarker available that informs both the patient and physician
about the best way to provide care is a significant advancement toward helping
the patient gain and maintain control of their asthma,” said Stuart Stoloff,
M.D., immediate past chairman of the board of directors of Allergy & Asthma
Network Mothers of Asthmatics.

For more information, contact:

Kathy Hodgdon, director of sales & marketing, Aerocrine Inc., telephone +1 (314)
566 8546

Chip Neff, president, Aerocrine Inc., telephone +1 (919) 696 4267