BioSignia, Inc., Reinsurance Group of America (RGA) Enter into Strategic Partnership Agreement

Research Triangle Park, N.C., and St. Louis, MO. (May 6, 2003) - BioSignia, Inc. and Reinsurance Group of America, Incorporated (NYSE:RGA) have formed a strategic partnership to jointly market BioSignia’s Mortality Assessment Technology (MAT) to the life insurance industry. Under this strategic partnership, BioSignia and RGA will offer the MAT model to RGA’s clients, enabling them to more accurately stratify risk classes.

BioSignia’s researchers have developed a patented statistical technology to analyze subtle changes in physiology that precede disease onset. This revolutionary epidemiological tool, called Synthesis Analysis, enables BioSignia to summarize the entire body of evidence for the onset of a specific disease state and predict the risk of onset for various chronic diseases and cancers (prior to symptomatic expression). MAT is a statistical modeling procedure that combines BioSignia’s individual disease prediction models into an aggregate mortality prediction model. When compared with traditional underwriting methods, MAT consistently and significantly reduces mortality risk in the best underwriting classes.

RGA, one of North America’s leading life reinsurers, has been working toward this relationship with BioSignia for over a year. “Since our early meetings, we have been very impressed with the intellectual and scientific expertise of the BioSignia team,” said Paul Schuster, Executive Vice President, U.S. Division of RGA. “We have been able to independently validate the superior mortality performance of the MAT technology in preferred risk selection. We enthusiastically endorse the product and are prepared to back that endorsement with appropriately priced reinsurance support, reflecting the characteristics of each client’s program.” Schuster added. “We are very pleased to be working with BioSignia to provide this exciting new underwriting tool to the life insurance industry.”

“We are delighted to have one of the industry’s leading experts embrace our technology,“ said Tom Livingston, Executive Vice President & CFO of BioSignia. “The mortality and actuarial expertise, industry knowledge, and product development insights of RGA add enormous value to our commercialization efforts,” he added.
Reinsurance Group of America, Incorporated, through its subsidiaries, RGA Reinsurance Company and RGA Life Reinsurance Company of Canada, is among the largest providers of life reinsurance in North America. In addition to its U.S. and Canadian operations, Reinsurance Group of America, Incorporated has subsidiary companies, offices or joint ventures in Argentina, Australia, Barbados, Hong Kong, India, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Taiwan and the United Kingdom. Worldwide, the Company has approximately $797 billion of life reinsurance in force, and assets of $9.6 billion. MetLife, Inc. is the beneficial owner of approximately 59 percent of RGA's outstanding shares.