ELEKTA RECEIVES ACHIEVEMENT AWARD FOR CORPORATE EXCELLENCE

ELEKTA RECEIVES ACHIEVEMENT AWARD FOR CORPORATE EXCELLENCE

Elekta in the U.S. has received the prestigious "Achievement Award 2004

for corporate excellence". The award is presented by the Swedish Trade

Council, the Consulate General of Sweden and the Swedish-American

Chamber of Commerce in San Francisco and is awarded to Swedish companies

with affiliations in the U.S. The award recognizes the excellent

contribution Elekta has made to Swedish-American trade in its marketing

and sales efforts.

The common element for all Achievement Award recipients is success. The

nominated companies were judged by the following criteria:

· Overall performance, competitiveness and capabilities

· Commercial success and development

· Achieved market position

Reasons for success in the US

Elekta entered the US market already in 1983 with an office in Atlanta,

where Elekta's US headquarter is located today. The US is an important

market for Elekta both in size, 40 percent of total revenues, and in

clinical and technology demand.

Elekta installed its first Leksell Gamma Knife® in the US at the

University of Pittsburgh in 1987, the same year as the first unit was

installed at the Karolinska Hospital in Sweden.

The introduction of Leksell Gamma Knife® in the US has been a great

success. Today more or less all neurosurgical departments at major

hospitals in the US perform neurosurgery using Leksell Gamma Knife®. It

has become the gold standard of care for non-invasive treatment of brain

disorders including functional diseases i.e. epilepsy and Parkinson's

disease.

By the end of December 2003, there were 193 Leksell Gamma Knife® units

installed world-wide of which 86 units are in the US.

Elekta is also a leading supplier in the U.S. and in the world of

systems for radiation therapy of cancer.

When Elekta acquired Philips radiotherapy division in 1997 the market

share in the US for systems for radiation of cancer was less than 10

percent. Today Elekta's market share is close to 25 percent. Elekta is

today the second largest supplier in the world of systems for radiation

treatment of cancer.

This is a result of a strong research and technical development program,

started when Elekta took over from Philips, which today has brought

Elekta to a position of technological leadership in the radiation

therapy market. As an example, Elekta is today the only company with

systems in clinical operation that are capable of image-guided radiation

therapy - integrating equipment for high resolution 3D x-ray images onto

a linear accelerator. The US is taking the lead in this development and

it is therefore important for Elekta to be a strong player in the US

marketplace.