Kendle, a leading, global full-service clinical research organization, today announced it has received the 2006 Pfizer Development Operations Strategic Supplier Excellence Award. Kendle provides functional clinical data management services to Pfizer in support of Pfizer’s global drug development efforts. This is the inaugural year for the award program from Pfizer’s Development Operations. It is intended to recognize the Functional Service Provider (FSP) from the existing pool of FSPs supporting Pfizer’s Development Operations that has demonstrated consistent performance in the areas of quality, service delivery and reliability, innovation and business processes, customer service and responsiveness. The winning FSP also must demonstrate excellence in at least one of these areas.

“It is truly an honor to be recognized in this way by one of our largest customers,” said Candace Kendle, PharmD, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Kendle.

Kendle’s Biometrics offerings include clinical data management, biostatistics and scientific programming services. Kendle provides these services for customers worldwide, including many of the world’s largest biopharmaceutical organizations.

Validity Sensors, Inc., a privately held biometric company specializing in high quality durable fingerprint sensors, today kicked off its “Hit it with a Hammer” marketing campaign. Due to their extreme ruggedness, Validity sensors are so durable you can literally hit them with a hammer. Validity’s web site (http://www.ValidityInc.com) shows a video clip of a three-pound sledgehammer directly hitting the face of the fingerprint sensor with the sensor surviving intact. A live hammer demonstration will also be on display in Validity’s booth (#IP228, Sands Convention Center) at the 2007 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, NV from January 8-11.

Another measure of fingerprint sensor durability and ruggedness is the pen drop test. A standard ball point pen is dropped on the face of the sensor to a height that cracks or breaks the sensor. While other sensors are damaged at a height of 10-20 cm, the Validity sensor can withstand pen drops from beyond 3 meters.

Scratch resistance is also an area which Validity sensors excel. Using a standard pencil hardness test, the Validity sensor continues to perform flawlessly after repeated scratches with a 6H pencil, much higher than competitive solutions.

“The key to ruggedness is making the sensor surface out of Kapton(R) plastic,” said Curt Chandler, Vice President of Technical Marketing at Validity Sensors. “The silicon chip is located away from the actual fingerprint imager and out of harm’s way. This leaves only the plastic exposed, which can take an extraordinary amount of abuse.” The exposed area also has superior resistance to ESD, harsh chemicals and abrasion. These properties promote the Validity sensor as the obvious choice for rugged environments where silicon-based technology sensors will not survive.

For more information about Validity’s LiveFlex(TM) technology, visit: www.ValidityInc.com.

Symwave, Inc. and Cogent Systems (NASDAQ: COGT) today announced an agreement to integrate Cogent’s world-class image reconstruction technology directly into Symwave’s biometric hardware products. The combined solution of Cogent’s image reconstruction and Symwave’s sensors will enable consumer electronic, PC and mobile device manufacturers to integrate high-performance biometric security and convenience features into their high volume applications targeting the consumer and enterprise markets.

Under this agreement, Cogent’s world-class fingerprint reconstruction algorithms will initially be integrated into Symwave’s BioPrint SW6888 fingerprint swipe sensor product offerings. Symwave’s BioPrint SW6888 sensor is a high-performance fingerprint solution targeting low-power, small form-factor portable and peripheral devices. Symwave currently offers SW6888-based reference design solutions for the portable storage, notebook/PC peripherals and application markets. Cogent is a world leader in biometric identification solutions ranging from nationally distributed network Automated Fingerprint Identification Systems, enterprise solutions, licensing and custom biometric designs.

“Cogent’s proven and robust fingerprint reconstruction technology and leading intellectual property position in the biometrics market combined with Symwave’s high performance BioPrint sensor family and expansive portfolio of reference designs will create leading biometric solutions for the market place. This will enable our customers to deploy biometric systems within their products with the assurance they are using the highest performance, most reliable solutions available,” said Sudhakar Avula, Director of Marketing, Biometrics Products at Symwave.

“Our image reconstruction algorithm is specifically tailored to enhance image quality of the fingerprint capture from the Symwave’s BioPrint swipe sensor,” said Christopher Crump, Director of Commercial Business at Cogent. “We believe that high image quality is the primary foundation for reliable and cost-effective fingerprint biometric solutions for the high volume portable storage devices and PC peripheral markets.”