Cath Lab Digest

Collaboration with Northeast Scientific Designed to Reduce Medical Waste and Lower Customer Costs

MINNEAPOLIS, Minnesota (February 3, 2012) – Vascular Solutions, Inc. is marketing a reprocessing service for the ClosureFAST radiofrequency ablation catheter in the United States. The ClosureFAST catheter, which is manufactured and marketed by VNUS Medical Technologies, Inc. division of Covidien, is widely used for performing endovenous therapy for the treatment of varicose veins. Vascular Solutions’ reprocessing service is designed to help physicians reduce medical waste and lower their costs.

Vascular Solutions is offering the reprocessing service under contract with Northeast
Scientific, Inc. (NES), an established third-party reprocessor of medical devices. NES received 510(k) clearance from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration on November 30, 2011 for reprocessing the ClosureFAST catheter.

“Reprocessing has proven to be a safe and effective way for hospitals and clinics to cut
down on medical waste and reduce operating costs. As a result, the vast majority of U.S.
hospitals are now contracting with third-party reprocessors for a wide variety of medical
devices,” said Howard Root, Chief Executive Officer of Vascular Solutions.

NES has granted Vascular Solutions the exclusive right through December 31, 2016 to
market the ClosureFAST reprocessing service to hospitals and clinics within the United States
through Vascular Solutions’ direct sales force. Vascular Solutions has already begun to take
orders for the ClosureFAST reprocessing service and NES has begun to receive used
ClosureFAST catheters from several of these customers for reprocessing.

Hospitals and clinics that subscribe to the service send their used ClosureFAST
catheters directly to NES for reprocessing. Upon completion of reprocessing, customers
receive those same catheters back, ready for a second use. NES’s validated reprocessing
system for the ClosureFAST catheters involves multiple stages, including decontamination,
cleaning, drying, packaging, labeling, sterilization, and biological quarantine testing. As part of
the process, each catheter is subjected to function testing and undergoes multiple inspections to ensure that quality standards are met.

“Regulators hold third-party processors such as NES to extremely high standards for
safety and effectiveness, and we are proud that we have successfully completed 46 different
tests to document that our reprocessed vein ablation catheters meet the industry’s highest
performance standards,” said Craig Allmendinger, Chief Executive Officer of NES.

For further information about the company, connect to www.vasc.com.
For more information about NES, connect to www.mdreprocess.com.

About Reprocessing
According to the Association of Medical Device Reprocessors (AMDR), between 1997-
2007 the reprocessing industry safely handled more than 50 million devices and prevented
more than 10,000 tons of medical waste from entering landfills.

AMDR describes reprocessing as follows: “Third-party reprocessors inspect, functionally
test, clean, package, and sterilize medical devices labeled for single-use in such a manner that the quality, physical characteristics, and performance functions of the device are not
significantly affected and that the device remains safe and effective for its appropriate use.”
Some of the medical devices most commonly reprocessed by third-party reprocessors
include EP catheters, orthopedic surgical blades, deep vein thrombosis compression sleeves,
laparoscopic instruments, tourniquet cuffs, saw blades, cardiac stabilizers, and pulse oximetry
sensors.

Disclosures
ClosureFAST is a registered trademark of Tyco Healthcare Group, LP. Vascular Solutions’ reprocessing service for the ClosureFAST catheter is not licensed by or associated
with VNUS Medical Technologies, Inc.