Gemplus wins contract for next generation e-healthcare patient cards in France
Gemplus to deliver smart cards and personalization services to GIE SESAM-Vitale for the French Nationwide health insurance application
Luxemburg, 30 May 2006–Gemplus International S.A. (Euronext: LU0121706294, GEM and NASDAQ: GEMP), a world leading provider of secure card-based solutions, has been selected by G.I.E. SESAM-Vitale as one of the main suppliers to issue the new generation of French patient e-Healthcare cards, known as “Vitale 2”.
These smart cards will replace the existing ones, rolled out in 1998. SESAM-Vitale is one of the largest e-Healthcare schemes, processing over 80 million electronic claims per month. The new smart cards will further enhance the possibilities of the system, in term of data processing and secure applications.
The scope of the contract includes the supply of smart cards, graphical and electrical personalization and mailing services to million of end users in France. Gemplus will fulfil the order through its local operations in France, in particular its personalization site in Gémenos, near Marseille.
The global market for the personalized Vitale 2 cards represents a total of 50 million units divided between 3 suppliers. The contract calls for the supply of a minimum of 8 million cards over two years, with possible extension over two more years.
“Gemplus has a long established presence in the French healthcare market on Patient smart cards, Personalization services, European Healthcare cards and Healthcare readers”, stated Jacques Seneca, President Gemplus, Europe Middle East & Africa. “Local card production and personalization services linked with worldwide e-healthcare smart card and personalization experience helped us meet GIE SESAM-Vitale’s requirements in this new program.”
This new contract confirms the strong position of Gemplus in the e-Healthcare market, and clearly demonstrates that Gemplus is a partner of choice to deploy nationwide e-healthcare schemes.
Gemplus’s experience in healthcare stretches back to 1998, when it began supplying France’s SESAM-Vitale system with Vitale 1 patient cards, personalization services and smart card readers. Gemplus has taken part in most projects to date, including Belgium, Germany, Slovenia and China. Products and services supplied include tens of millions of smart cards, readers, software, and personalization, mailing and consulting services. Recently, Gemplus announced the delivery of 3.7 million smart healthcare cards to the Mexican government’s social security organizations
About Gemplus
Gemplus International S.A. (Euronext: LU0121706294 – GEM and NASDAQ: GEMP) is a world leading player in the secure card industry in both revenue and total shipments (source: Gartner-Dataquest 2005, Frost & Sullivan, Datamonitor). It has sold over 5.5 billion smart cards.
Gemplus delivers a wide range of portable, personalized solutions in areas including Identity, Mobile Telecommunications, Public Telephony, Banking, Retail, Transport, Healthcare, WLAN, Pay-TV, e-government, and access control.
Gemplus’ revenue in 2005 was 939 million Euros.
For more information:
Renaud Laffont-Leenhardt
Communication Manager
+33 (0)4 42 36 54 53
renaud.laffont-leenhardt@gemplus.com