Two more vendors join e-commerce project

Bayer Diagnostics and Smith & Nephew, a London-based medical devices firm, are the two latest companies to join the Global Healthcare Exchange, an online distribution enterprise.

Global Healthcare Exchange, which is expected to go live in the U.S. in the third quarter and go global in 2001, was formed in April by five of the U.S.’s largest healthcare products companies. Abbott Laboratories, Baxter International, GE Medical Systems, Johnson & Johnson, and Medtronic created the exchange to streamline the buying, selling, and distribution of medical equipment, supplies, and services.