Optos Named European Inventor Of The Year 2008

LONDON, UK, 07 May 2008 Optos plc (LSE: OPTS), a leading medical technology company for the design, development, manufacturing and marketing of retinal imaging devices, is today announcing that it has been named by the European Commission and European Patent Office (EPO) as European Inventor of the Year 2008 in the SME and Research category in recognition of the Companys proprietary scanning laser technology.

Europes top innovation prize honours pioneers whose inventions have changed everyday lives and helped to strengthen Europes competitiveness. Douglas Anderson, founder of Optos, received the award yesterday in Ljubljana, Slovenia from the Slovenian President Danilo Türk, EU Commissioner and Vice-President of the European Commission Günter Verheugen and EPO President Alison Brimelow.

Commenting, Mr Anderson, said:

It was with genuine humility that I accepted this award recognising that it was the efforts of every engineer and designer that made this possible, which would in turn have been for nothing had not all those involved in manufacturing, procurement and quality assurance constructed our device, which again would have made no difference had not our field staff delivered relentlessly and for everyone in administration who kept us focused in the earliest days - this has been a tremendous team effort and accomplishment.

Optos was the only British finalist in the awards in the competition with entries from across Europe. Other category winners came from Germany, Belgium and the US. The award was judged by an independent panel that looked at technological achievements that have been developed and successfully marketed between 1993 and 2002.