TMX group

BC's Interior Health Authority Purchases RAMP Systems For Cardiac Testing

VANCOUVER, Dec. 13 /CNW/ - Response Biomedical Corp. (TSX-V: RBM,
OTCBB: RPBIF), announced today that the Interior Health Authority of British
Columbia has purchased RAMP Systems intended for use in more than 25 hospitals
and community care facilities, to assist in the early detection of heart
attacks.
Rapid diagnosis of heart attacks is critical to patient outcomes. Every
minute that passes after the occurrence of a heart attack without appropriate
medical treatment reduces the patient's chance of survival. The initial
purchase followed a series of evaluations of RAMP's performance compared to
established point-of-care and laboratory based diagnostic systems. The RAMP
System provides highly sensitive quantitative information within approximately
15 minutes, enabling physicians to quickly and accurately rule in or rule out
heart attacks and provide the appropriate treatment.
"With 20,000 heart attack tests expected to be performed annually in this
region, approximately 750,000 residents will enjoy the benefits of a locally
developed diagnostic platform that has set a superior standard in point-of-
care testing," said Bill Radvak, President and CEO. "Similar to Group
Purchasing Organizations in the United States, BC's regional approach to
administrating health care exploits the versatility of our high performance
RAMP System given its broad applicability to both hospitals and health care
clinics."
The RAMP System facilitates improved patient care, and reduces health
care costs associated with unnecessary hospital admissions due to symptoms
often mistaken for cardiac arrest. With its small footprint, ease of use and
lab quality results, RAMP will provide a cost-effective solution to enable
rapid testing in a broader range of facilities which are nearer to the
patient.
Response Biomedical has received US Food and Drug Administration and
Canadian regulatory clearance for its fluorescence-based RAMP Reader for
general clinical use and three RAMP Cardiac Marker Tests for detecting
troponin I, CK-MB and myoglobin. Cardiac markers are proteins released in the
blood following damage to heart tissue, which may represent a heart attack.
In a Company sponsored dual predicate multi-center clinical trail, the
RAMP troponin I test showed strong correlation with the Dade Dimension     
lab-analyzer and significant performance improvement versus the market-leading
POC device at low troponin I concentrations. To review the published results,
please visit the Company's website. Both correlation and sensitivity are key
performance criteria for clinical decision makers, and provide significant
product differentiation opportunities for the Company's marketing efforts.

About Interior Health Authority

Established in 2001, the Interior Health Authority is the administrative
organization responsible for providing all publicly funded health services to
approximately 750,000 people in the Southern Interior of British Columbia. The
region covers about 216,000 square kilometers and includes the Thompson
Cariboo Shuswap, the Okanagan Similkameen, and East and West Kootenay. With a
total annual budget of more than $1 billion, Interior Health's main focus is
on providing quality patient care in a cost effective manner. For more
information, please visit www.interiorhealth.ca.

About Response Biomedical

Response Biomedical develops, manufactures and markets rapid on-site
diagnostic tests for use with its RAMP System for clinical and environmental
applications. RAMP represents a new paradigm in diagnostic testing by
providing reliable information in minutes, anywhere, every time. The RAMP
System consists of a portable fluorescent Reader and single-use, disposable
Test Cartridges, and has the potential to be adapted to more than 250 medical
and non-medical tests currently performed in laboratories. RAMP tests are
commercially available for the early detection of heart attack, environmental
detection of West Nile virus, and biodefense applications including the rapid
on-site detection of anthrax, smallpox, ricin and botulinum toxin. The Company
has achieved CE Marking and its Quality Management System is registered to
ISO 13485: 2003 and ISO 9001: 2000.
Response Biomedical is a publicly traded company, listed on the TSX
Venture Exchange under the trading symbol "RBM" and quoted on the OTC Bulletin
Board under the symbol "RPBIF". For further information, please visit the
Company's website at www.responsebio.com.

The TSX Venture Exchange has not reviewed and does not accept
responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Statements contained in this news release relating to future results,
events and expectations, are forward-looking statements within the meaning of
Section 21E of the United States Securities Exchange Act of 1934. These
forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and
other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievement
of the Company, or industry results, to be materially different from any
future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such
statements. Such factors include, among others, those described in the
Company's annual report on Form 20-F.