The Laszlo Letter

Briefly Noted: IT articles in Contract Pharma

In case you are not a regular reader of Contract Pharma, I wanted to make you aware of three articles that appear in the March 2011 issue:

The first reviews the current market for Laboratory Information Systems (LIS) and their Electronic Lab Notebook cousins. The ability to share data via standard data models is discussed. The impact of outsourcing on LIS is also covered.

The second covers the importance of standards for data sharing. This time it's not about CDISC but the need for similar standards in the manufacturing and supply chain arena. Reference is made to the Pistoia Alliance;

The third discusses IT investments in the areas of drug discovery, drug development, supply chain and manufacturing and sales/marketing. Special focus is placed on the role of IT when operations are outsourced.

Update: Software for Clinical Development - 2010 Edition

The updating of this software list is still in progress. Several new software categories have been added and the list of vendors is growing and shrinking at the same time. In other words, some companies have gone out of business, others have been assimilated and new ones have also been born. At the moment, I am optimistic that the list will be ready to share sometime in November. Your patience is appreciated and hopefully rewarded fairly soon. 

Software for Clinical Development

Having recently particiapted in two DIA meetings, I thought it would be useful to pull together a spreadsheet of vendors offering software used in clinical development. This can serve as the basis for a more comprehensive list built and maintained by reader input.

For now, the list is kept in an Excel spreadsheet:

Download ClinDevSoftwareVendors-April2008.xls

Please note that I consider this spreadsheet as the intellectual property of The Laszlo Letter. In other words, it is copyrighted. You may use it as a reference document but not benefit from it in any financial manner or reproduce it without my permission.

To contribute new items or update those that already exist, just use the comment function of the blog. I will take it from there and post new versions of the spreadsheet as necessary.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Bedside Portable Computer

Motion Computing has announced the availability of their Motion C5 Mobile Clinical Assistant (MCA) tablet computer. This flash demo gives a good overview of the device.

The device was created in collaboration with Intel Digital Health Group. While currently intended for hopital use, the tablet could be used for other purposes such as EDC.

It should be noted that the device is primarily a hardware solution and does not come with healthcare application software. A good example of the way the device can be adapted for bedside use is described in this field study by Intel. In this case, the tablet was integrated with the Eclipsys Sunrise Clinical Manager platform.

The unit uses the Intel Centrino processor, runs on either MS Vista or XP and includes a bar code reader, RFID reader and digital camera. It also supports wireless and bluetooth connectivity.

Biopharma RFID Market Projections

In Brief

According to a recent article in InPharma Technologist, "the take up of smart tags in the [USA] pharmaceutical industry is already booming and the pharma sector is now the second largest adopter of RFID technology, with 18 per cent of suppliers and 14 per cent of customers in this field now piloting or using RFID."

In addition, "the market for RFID tags in US healthcare is predicted to explode from $90m (€70m) in 2006 to $2.1bn in 2016."

While this article paints a rosy picture for RFID adoption, this web site has previously reviewed the many issues that could prevent as fast a growth as implied by these projections.

Another posting lists the key product suppliers in this arena.

DHL Cold Chain RFID Product

On December 20, 2006, DHL announced the development of "a new, pioneering technology for the pharmaceutical industry which significantly improves the monitoring of temperature-controlled transports."

This cold chain solution incorporates a "special RFID sensor tag [that] controls and documents the temperature of items throughout transport. The measuring data are available at every read point so that senders, recipients and inspectors alike can check the condition of the products at any time. ...fluctuations in temperature outside of the recommended range can have a negative effect on the lifespan of medical products such as vaccines."

Photo: DHL Delivery in Venice - Copyright 2006 George A. Laszlo
 

RFID - The State of Affairs

Contract Pharma is a magazine that does not put all of what's in print on their web site. For that reason alone, I would suggest that you sign up for the print publication if you don't already get it. Go here to sign up.

In the September 2006 issue, Gil Roth presents an update on RFID in the pharma supply chain. So what exactly is the state of affairs?

RFID Vendors

The following table lists vendors that provide solutions and services related to RFID use in the pharmaceutical industry. It is not meant to be a complete listing of vendors, only of those that have been identified via the industry news that this blog follows. The reader can check when the list was last updated by looking at the date of this post.

The Laszlo Letter does not necessarily endorse or recommend any of these products and services. The table is provided solely as a reference source to our readers.

Feds (RFID) vs. States (Bar Codes)

Will States put RFID behind bars?

Sorry, I couldn't resist.

In an interesting twist to fighting counterfit drugs, several states seem to be doing an end run around the FDA in its effort to get wider use of RFID technology.

Note: The bar code photo is from the web site barcodeart.com. You can actually buy temporary barcode tattoos to put on your body from artist Scott Blake.

Patient Compliance and RFID

While the use of Radio Frequency ID (RFID) in Life Sciences is a hot topic, the industry is just scratching the surface for potential applications of this technology. The latest of these is in the area of patient compliance with an entry from Information Mediary Corporation called Med-Ic ECM. The ECM part stands for Electronic Compliance Monitor.