84 F e b ru a r y 200 3 PharmaVOICE EMEDIA NEW ELECTRONIC AND WEBBASED APPLICATIONS, SITES, AND TECHNOLOGIES ProscapeTechnologies has anew Internet tool to make facetoface selling more effective. Proscape.Net provides mobile sales organizations a common technolo gy platform to exchange, update, communicate, monitor, and present sales and marketing information during sales presentations. The product is built using Microsoft’s .NET architecture and will launch with the Microsoft Win dows.Net Servers in April 2003. Before the launch, Proscape.Net will be independently certified on the .Net Server platform. By using the Microsoft .Net Framework, Proscape.Net provides various benefits to a sales and SciQuest Product DELIVERSTHE BENEFITS OF INTEGRATED Sourcing, Procurement,and Materials Management to Research Intensive Organizations The release of SciQuest Inc.’s Enterprise Reagent Manager 4.5 gives company researchers the ability to search more than 200,000 chemical structures representing 700,000 products from more than 150 leading chemical suppliers to locate needed materials to help speed the innovation process. Enterprise Reagent Manager is a materialsmanagement solution for lifesciences manufacturers, industrial research companies,and highereducation organizations that enables enterprisewide pro curement, tracking, and monitor ing of chemical and reagents through the innovation supply chain. Companies can use the solu tion to improve internal chemical management and compliance reporting. Integrated in the new version, is the SciQuest SelectSite Chemical Sourcing Appli cation.This application provides users with access to expanded supplier content, enhanced structure searching capabilities, and robust catalog manage ment functionality through the ERM Researcher Desktop. Proscape Prepares FACETOFACE SELLINGTOOL Pharmaceutical information providers from several countries are joining forces to offer a new choice for timely consolidated inter national data. NDCHealth Corp. has formed a global consortium of indepen dent pharmaceutical sales, prescription, and medical information providers who will contribute their pharmaceutical data. The data will be translated into a common platform.The NDCGlobalTrendsdatabase pro vides pharmaceutical clients around the world with access to country level sales data for top global pharmaceutical markets.The data include:wholesale distribution sales, prescription sales, and medical information. NDC Global Trends is readying to launch the first phase of this effort with data from several multinational healthcare information providers covering many of the world’s leading pharmaceutical markets.Additional markets will be added as the consortium advances. “NDC Global Trends will employ stateoftheart technology to deliver pharmaceutical sales data to the customer via the World Wide Web — much faster than what is currently available,” says Shel Silverberg, execu tive VP of NDCHealth International.“NDC Global Trends’Webbased tech nology will make the data available to the customer virtually anytime,anywhere.Unlike the current solution, customers will have open access to common product files and the ability to use NDCHealth for data man agement or simply load the data into their own data warehouse. Open system clients will have the option to choose a product and supplier by country, according to needed information.” NDCHealth FORMS GLOBAL CONSORTIUM of Independent Pharmaceutical Sales, Prescription,and Medical Information Providers By enhancing Enterprise Reagent Manager’s robust feature set with SelectSite chemical sourcing and catalog management functionality we are taking the first steps toward integrating, and accelerating, the innovation supply chain. Jamie Duke Our customers have told us that they need consolidated international data in a more timely manner — NDC Global Trends’ partners will greatly expand the reach of their products and services around the world, says Walter M. Hoff, chairman and CEO of NDCHealth. marketing organization, including a twoway com munication vehicle with the field and the ability for customers to immediately adjust their content based on shifting busi ness conditions and redeploy it to the field. Proscape.Net takes advantage of capabilities that keep the selling infrastructure operational with 99.999% uptime. The product uses Windows.Net and SQL/Server to handle large workloads and deliver high levels of performance. It also allows administrators to monitor the solution’s system froma central loca tion to ensure the system can be administered from any location. Proscape.Net takes advantage of capabilities that keep the selling infrastructure operational with 99.999% uptime. Online Forum for NEWSONAGING Launched The Alliance for Aging Research and Science magazine has launched a Website that provides an online forum for news and debates on emerging issues of science, aging, health, and the public interest. Visitors to sagecrossroads.net can interact through live Webcasts with experts in aging and medical research and with thought leaders in bioethics, future studies, and health economics.The venture is expected to give journalists the opportunity and capability to learn about coming opportunities that will affect the processes of human aging and to explore the likely ramifications for healthcare and for society in general. In addition, SAGE Crossroads will host monthly debates via Webcast.Possible topics include: Should we tinker with human aging?; Does longevity science make good economic sense?; Should age count in allocating health care resources?; and What’s the right economic model to ensure generational equity? 85 PharmaVOICE F e b ru a r y 2 00 3 Emedia Stateoftheart effica cy and safety testing with results correlated between two international sites has been made possible through CenterlinX infor mation technology. Eso terix Inc.’s CenterlinX is being used in the compa ny’s new clinicaltrials facil ities in East Windsor, N.J., and Groningen, The Netherlands. CenterlinX incorpo rates unique worldwide accession numbers to simplify sample tracking, realtime inspection, and auto verification of data for each patient visit. It auto mates the ordering of tests, which reduces errors and ensures protocol compliance. The technology also uses customized highquality barcoded requi sitions for ease of use on an international basis and can track expired kits and containers,minimizing trial costs. CenterlinX offers multilevel services such as blinding and alert flagging and was validated according to the FDA’s 21 CFR Part 11 standards,with a complete audit trail of all study events. “When Esoterix combines the scientific expertise of esoteric therapeutic areas with cuttingedge tech nology, assay customization, and stateoftheart datamanagement capabilities, our clients are better positioned to reach early, accurate decisions about drug performance,” says Anthony Busa,president of Esoterix clinicaltrial services. “Esoterix clients will benefit from faster timetomarket, benefiting con sumers as well.” CenterlinX’s protocol management provides clients with Webbased access to view and cus tomize reports.Data can be transferred electronical ly, via diskette or CDROM. CenterlinX Platform LINKS INTERNATIONAL LABORATORY SERVICES Online Healthcare Group SERVES INTERNET DATACOLLECTION NEEDS of Healthcare Market Research Companies IMS Health’s Webbased System Offers ACCESSTO INTEGRATED GLOBAL MARKET INTELLIGENCE From Three Services IMS Health has launched IMS Knowledge Link, a Webbased system that offers instant access to integrated global pharmaceutical market intelligence from three leading IMS services — IMS World Review, IMS Company Profiles, and IMS Lifecycle R&D Focus. Knowledge Link provides indepth analy sis of sales data for drugs in more than 300 therapy areas, marketed by 126 companies in 23 countries. Other offerings include: evaluations of the progress of products in the industry’s R&D pipelines, from preclinical phases to launch, as well as profiles of 85 major pharmaceutical companies, including senior management interviews, merger and acquisi tion assessments, and forecasts from experts in the industry. “IMS Knowledge Link is a powerful tool that delivers a wealth of insights and information to clients in userfriendly formats,”says Stephanie Earle, IMS marketing manager. “Starting with one of four topics — companies, products, therapies, and coun tries — users can find the facts they need on sales data and trends for hundreds of products, track the R&D progress of more than 6,000 drugs in active development, or take a closer look at the strategy, product portfolios, and financial results of leading pharmaceutical companies.” Because the IMS Knowledge Link is a flexible, multilevel service, users can get a quick overview or drill deep into the information as their needs require. Users of the service can conduct combination searches and link relevant insights in preformatted, Webbased reports. Each report offers direct access to the individual IMS World Review, IMS Company Profiles, and IMS Lifecycle R&D Focus services for deeper insights. Patent data and market forecasts will be added to IMS Knowledge Link’s information offering. To serve the needs of marketing research companies that work with clients in the managedcare, pharmaceutical, and medicaldevice industries, Greenfield Online Inc. has formed a healthcare research group.The new division comprises the latest online data collection tools, technologies,and access to preidentified physicians, other medi cal professionals, and healthcare consumers. Greenfield Online has developed a Health & Wellness Panel, and can easily find and survey chronic sufferers and users of specific medications, including vitamins and OTC treatments.By leveraging its partnership with MSN,andby establishing relationships with a wide range of healthrelated Websites, Greenfield Online has access to more than 1.2 million people,including those with preidentified ailments and lifestyle habits.Greenfield also has access to more than 22,000 physicians in various specialties. The Greenfield Online Health &Wellness Panel tracks members’exercise and fitness activities, as well as information about the doctors and specialists they visit. The panel consists of members who have been diagnosed with medical conditions and have opted in to participate in surveys. The company recently hired David Reiss to spearhead its new division and as managing director of health care. Mr.Reiss brings more than 17 years experience in business and healthcare information from Dun & Brad street,Thomson Healthcare,and two recent development stage ventures. More and more of our clients have come to rely on us for healthcare related data collection, and they deserve to have a dedicated health care group to serve their needs. David Reiss Anthony Busa Compressing the typical development timetable may save millions of dollars in drugdevelopment costs. Healthology Inc. and Health ScoutNews LLC have collaborat ed to produce a product that delivers latebreaking health news articles with related multi media videos to one platform. This new service allows con sumers to learn about the latest developments in important medical, health, and disease management topics through synchronized text and multime dia channels. The product is being delivered on the health channel of ABCNews.com. “ABCNews.com’s health sec tion is a very popular and impor tant part of our content offer ings,” says Steve Jones, executive producer of ABCNews.com. “We are thrilled to be able to expand the content and the manner we deliver ourhealthrelated news so that it benefits our users.” “The combination of HealthScoutNews’ late breaking news stories enhanced with very specifi cally related video content is a perfect example of how to use Internet technology to disseminate infor mation intelligently,” says Rafael Cosentino, VP of business development for Healthology. Late breaking health news articles with enhanced multimedia can be viewed by visiting the health channel at abcnews.go.com/sections/living. ABCNews.com to DELIVER MULTIMEDIAENHANCED HEALTH NEWS Articles SomeWebcasts with articles onADHD are funded through unrestricted educational grants from McNeil Consumer Products and Alza Pharmaceuticals. 86 F e b ru a r y 20 03 PharmaVOICE Emedia The American Heart Association has launched a comprehensive cardiovascu lar/cerebrovascular Web resource for researchers, clinicians, and healthcare providers. My AmericanHeart for Professionals, www.my.americanheart.org, fur thers the association’s goal of reducing death and disability from cardiovascular diseases and stroke by providing clinicians and scientists with comprehensive, credible, and timely information. MyAmericanHeart for Professionals gives healthcare professionals immediate online access to critical clinical content needed to improve patient care.Users can search across the entire spectrum of available resources or narrow their search to a more suitable subset of information.Irrelevant results are eliminated through contextual tagging of the information. The resource also offers personalization features, such as bookmarking, saved searches,and a profile to capture site links and other professional information. The site provides realtime access and the ability to crosssearch core cardiolo gy and stroke information that clinicians and researchers value. Among the infor mation made available are: American Heart Association scientific journals;clinical summaries of new papers and studies published in journals provided by authori ties in the field; clinical reference textbooks and journals provided by Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, publishers of the AHA scientific journals; comprehensive and updated Facts and Comparisondrug database;reference linking to additional con tent via HighWire and PubMed;statements and practice guidelines; continuing education;scientific conferences and events; and personalized content. American Heart Association Launches Website FORHEALTHCARE PROFESSIONALS The National Diabetes Education Initiative Web site, www.ndei.org, recently relaunched by Thomson Professional Postgraduate Services has enjoyed 9% monthly increases in new physicianregistrants, qua drupling total enrollment since its debut in 1997. In the past few months, there has been a 20% increase in site traffic by medical professionals, who spend more than 24 minutes per user ses sion and also participate in online CME activities. Among the recent structural modifications to the site are a new feature in the Recent Literature Alerts section that matches and sorts arti cles for registrants onthebasisof their clinical interests, and a more user friendly Slide Librarywherephysicians can quickly and easily select and download high quality educational materials for presentations. RECORD PHYSICIAN USAGE for Revamped National Diabetes Initiative Website The National Diabetes Education Initiative (NDEI) is a multicomponenteducational program designed for endocrinologists, cardiologists, primarycare physi cians, and other healthcare professionals involved in the care and management of patients with Type 2 diabetes. NDEI programs address issues concerning insulin resistance and Type 2 diabetes, from the epi demiology and pathophysiology of the disease and its complications to therapeutic options available for treatment and prevention. Content for NDEI education pro grams is developed by Thomson Professional Postgraduate Services under the direction of national and international leaders in the field of endocrinology and cardiology, including NDEI program cochairs,Edward S.Horton, M.D.and Burton E. Sobel,M.D. Redesigned www.ndei.org has quadrupled total enrollment since its debut in 1997. SOLUTIONS for eCTD Submissions Made Available by Liquent Liquent Inc. has launched three products to produce, manage, and view compliant electronic Common Techni cal Document (eCTD) submissions for multiple regions:Liquent eCTD Assistant 2.0,Li uent Submission Accelerator for eCTD, and Liquent eCTD Reviewer. These new products are designed to ensure that lifesciences organizations will be wellprepared to take advantage of the benefits of the eCTD,anXMLdriv en specification designed to simplify the creation and review of regulatory sub missions. Liquent’s publishing solutions quickly and easily generate eCTD sub missions compliant with International Conference on Harmonisation (ICH) and regional specifications complete with the requisite XML backbones that can then be managed and updated throughout the submission lifecycle. eCTD Assistant 2.0 supports the final ICH Step 4 eCTD specifications and draft specifications from the FDAandEMEA to enable the assembly of submission ready documents, create the appropriate file/folder structure, assign leaf document attributes, and then build the required XML backbone and regional XML required in eCTD submissions.A free trial of the eCTD Assistant 2.0 software is being made available. Also compliant with ICH’s Step 4 specifications, Submission Accelerator is a module for Liquent’s CoreDossier publishing software that enables auto mated eCTD publishing. The product is made avail able with predefined eCTD templates that are updat ed as ICH and regional specifications change — ensuring that submissions are always compliant with ICH standards and the specifications provided by reg ulatory authorities in the U.S.,Europe,and Japan. The eCTD Reviewer is a free tool that provides a comprehensive view of a submission as it is being built and after completion. The eCTD Reviewer is bundled with eCTD Assistant 2.0; an advanced ver sion with editing capabilities and a conformity checker is included with Submission Accelerator. According to David P. Faxon, M.D., past president of the American Heart Association, keeping current with developing science and applying what you learn to your practice is a daunting exercise, but now is much easier with the My AmericanHeart for Professionals Website. Digitography,a system for use in clinical trials that allows onscreen digital electrocardiogram waveform measurement, has been launched by Covance Inc. The new service enables highly reproducible interval measurement with unmatched resolution by using a fully digital tool set. With Digitography, Covance enables clients to confidently comply with the proposed Food and Drug Administration guidance for electronic inter change standard for digital ECG and similar data. Patents are pending for this ECG technology. “ProcessingECGsin adigital environment for near ly 30 years,Covance has raised the bar with Digitogra phy by providing higher quality data for more power ful statistical conclusions,” says Eileen Daniel,general manager for Central Diagnostics at Covance. “From digital acquisition of the ECG waveform to the preci sion of Digitography,clients attain accuracy in data for electronic NDA submissions and are more likely to reduce the time and cost of drug development.” Covance acquires original ECG signals digitally through the use of the proprietary systems.Once ECG signals are received, the company’s Central Diagnos tics unit verifies the quality of the signal in realtime. Covance employs cardiologists who analyze each ECG through an onscreen reading station that uses Digitography for annotation and verification. Covance Launches INTERACTIVE CLINICALTRIAL ECGANALYSIS ANDANNOTATION System 87 PharmaVOICE F e b ru a r y 2 003 Emedia For several years, select support group associa tions have been providing links on their Websites to online listings of clinical trials.The newTrialEmpower service from CenterWatch and DonorEmpower pro vides information about specific clinical trials that are openly enrolling volunteers to support group asso ciation members directly and proactively. Associa tion members will then be able to contact local clin icalresearch professionals to learn about and dis cuss specific clinical trials for which they may be eli gible.This is the first service of its kind in the U.S. Major biopharmaceutical companies, govern ment agencies, and foundations recently have expressed interest in the new TrialEmpower service. During the coming months, DonorEmpower and CenterWatch expect to begin disseminating data on pivotal clinical trials andPhase IV research programs to patient members of supportgroup associations. “Clinical research sponsors, including govern ment agencies and biopharmaceutical companies have been seeking ways to more effectively reach and inform large numbers of patients suffering from specific medical conditions,”says Ken Getz,president and CEO of CenterWatch. CenterWatch and DonorEmpower Launch New Service to DISSEMINATE CLINICALTRIALS INFORMATIONTOPATIENTS AND FAMILY Members of SupportGroup Associations ABCNEWS.COM,NewYork, is the 24hour, online news service of ABCNews.For more information,visit abcnews.com. ALLIANCE FORAGING RESEARCH, Washington,D.C., is a nonprofit agency dedicated to supporting and accelerating the pace of medical discoveries to improve the universal human experience of aging and health.For more information, visit agingresearch.org. THEAMERICANHEARTASSOCIATION, Dallas, is the largest nonprofit voluntary health organization fighting heart disease, stroke,and other cardiovascular diseases, which annually kill about 960,000 Americans.For more information visit americanheart.org. CENTERWATCH,Boston, is an information services company that focuses on the clinicaltrials industry.CenterWatch provides a variety of publications and services for clinical research and health professionals,patients, and health consumers.For more information,visit centerwatch.com. COVANCE,Princeton,N.J., is oneof the world’s largest and most comprehensive drug development services companies. For more information, visit covance.com. DONOREMPOWER, Palo Alto, Calif., is a technology company delivering next generation HTML email based software solutions for advocacy, trial recruitment, and fundraising.For more information, visit donorempower.com. ESOTERIX INC.,Austin,Texas, is a healthcare services company providing a broad spectrum of esoteric laboratory lifesciences industry.For more information, visit liquent.com. NDCHEALTHCORP.,Atlanta, is a leading provider of health information services to pharmacy,hospital,physician, pharmaceutical,and payer businesses. For more information, visit ndchealth.com. PROSCAPETECHNOLOGIES,Fort Washington,Pa., is a Microsoft Certified partner that provides marketing and sales solutions that help sales representatives deliver more content,win more time,and sell moreproducts and services to prospects. For more information, visit proscape.com. SCIENCEMAGAZINE,Washington,D.C., published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science, is a weekly,peerreviewed journal that publishes original scientific research, plus reviews and analyses of research and science policy.For more information, visit sciencemag.org. SCIQUEST,ResearchTriangle Park,N.C., provides technology,services,and domain expertise to optimize procurement and materials management for the lifesciences, industrial research,and highereducation markets.For more information,visit sciquest.com. THOMSON PROFESSIONAL POSTGRADUATE SERVICES, Secaucus, N.J., a business within The Thomson Corp., develops medicaleducation activities designed to meet the nees of practicing physicians. For more information,visit physiciansworld.com. Follow up services,oncologybased testing, and consultation,as well as international clinical trials capabilities dedicated to drug develop ment research.For more information,visit esoterix.com. GREENFIELDONLINE INC.,Wilton,Conn., conducts marketing research via the Internet through sampling capabilities, including one of the largest and most robust online research panels, as well as the ability to recruit from the Microsoft Network. For more information, visit greenfield.com. HEALTHOLOGY INC., NewYork, is a privately held online healthmedia company that uses its extensive network of health professionals to develop highquality,online health content on a variety of health and medical topics.For more information, visit healthology.com. THEHEALTHSCOUTNEWS SERVICE,Norwalk, Conn., is a division of ScoutNews LLC, a news and information company. HealthScoutNews stories are syndicated by the NewYork Times Syndicate in print to more than 40 newspapers worldwide each day and on television stations in four of the top 10 markets. For more information,visit healthscoutnews.com. IMS HEALTH,Fairfield, Conn., is a leading provider of information solutions to the pharmaceutical and healthcare industries. For more information, visit imshealth.com. LIQUENT INC.,Fort Washington,Pa., part of the Intellectual Property Group of Information Holdings Inc.,provides content assembly, publishing,and regulatory and intellectual property information solutions for the
