WEST WARWICK – Astro-Med Inc. said last week that it has been awarded a two-year contract from Premier Inc. that makes its Grass Technologies-brand sleep diagnostic system the network’s first choice.

Under the contract, Premier member organizations will buy the Astro-Med system as their first choice, and Astro-Med, a leading health care purchasing network that serves 2,000 hospitals and 50,000 health care sites in the United States, will provide “competitive pricing” to all Premier member hospitals and labs for its Aura PSG and Comet PSG Sleep Diagnostic Systems, the company said. The contract goes into effect on June 1.

“It is gratifying to have won this valuable contract after having been in negotiations with Premier since August of last year and being selected over other manufacturers of sleep products,” said Marco Mancini, sales manager of Grass Technologies products, in a news release.

Mancini noted that Premier members will be prompted to purchase Grass Technologies sleep systems “based on three key benefits: the performance advantages of technology, our technical support excellence, and our competitive pricing.”

The Grass Technologies brand has developed these and other neurophysiological monitoring systems since 1935, and manufactures, sells and supports these systems for use by hospitals and labs. It recently launched SleepTrek 3, a sleep diagnostic system for home use which qualifies for Medicaid reimbursement.

Based in San Diego, Calif., and owned by not-for-profit hospitals, Premier operates one of the leading health care purchasing networks and the nation’s most comprehensive repository of hospital clinical and financial information.

Astro-Med Inc. (NASDAQ: ALOT) is a manufacturer of high-tech specialty printing systems, electronic medical instrumentation, and test and measurement instruments. For more information, go to www.astro-medinc.com.