Microsoft Corp. today announced winners of the Microsoft® Pharmaceutical and Life Sciences Innovation Awards 2006, honoring the breakthrough contributions that new and innovative solutions are making in the pharmaceutical and life sciences industry in the areas of sales and marketing, manufacturing and supply chain, and clinical development.
The awards, announced at the annual meeting of the Drug Information Association (DIA) in Philadelphia, were given to companies that have demonstrated the best use of Microsoft-based solutions for breakthroughs in business processes and practices in each of the categories.
“At Microsoft, we believe that innovative technology use in life sciences can create revolutionary new ways of doing business, resulting in breakthroughs in research, product innovation and corporate performance,” said Steve Shihadeh, general manager of healthcare and life sciences at Microsoft. “The companies we are recognizing today exemplify a transformative use of technology and are helping their people better connect and collaborate, as well as make more-informed decisions that drive overall business success.”
Award Winners
Award participants consisted of worldwide life sciences corporations in biotechnology, diagnostics, medical equipment and devices, pharmaceuticals, animal health, nutritional products, and consumer health products.
The winners of this year’s Pharmaceutical and Life Sciences Innovation Awards are listed here:
Sales and Marketing
• GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) Inc., Mississauga, Ontario. GlaxoSmithKline is one of the world’s leading research-based pharmaceutical and healthcare companies and is committed to improving the quality of human life by enabling people to do more, feel better and live longer.
GSK’s solution utilizes a Tablet PC, powered by Windows® XP Tablet PC Edition, and Proscape Technologies Inc.’s software. The solution has allowed GSK to dramatically reduce the cycle time between introducing a new product marketing campaign and measuring its results. By using Proscape’s software, a sales representative can easily, quickly and effectively convey key product information in an engaging and memorable way through multimedia presentations running on the Tablet PC. Based on data from GSK’s CRM application, these presentations can be tailored for different market segments, thereby maximizing their educational value.
Manufacturing and Supply Chain
• ALTANA Pharma AG, Konstanz, Germany. ALTANA Pharma AG is the pharmaceutical division of ALTANA AG (FSE: ALT, NYSE: AAA), which has its headquarters in Konstanz, Germany. ALTANA Pharma is an internationally successful, research-based company providing innovative pharmaceuticals that create a higher quality of life for patients, modern jobs for highly qualified employees, and a good return for shareholders.
In 2005, ALTANA Pharma AG implemented Wassermann AG’s wayRTS (Real Time Simulation) solution — a 64-bit application using Windows Server® 2003, Visual Studio® 2005, Visual SourceSafe® and the 2003 Microsoft Office system — for the operational planning, simulation and scheduling of its largest supply chain across three production sites and eight sales units. The resulting quality improvement leads to a significantly reduced error rate. Because the process schedules are more reliable and therefore more stable, significantly less time is spent on discussions about better production sequences or rescheduling in general.
• Pfizer Inc., New York. Pfizer Inc. is the world’s largest research-based pharmaceutical company, employing more than 115,000 people. Dedicated to better health and greater access to healthcare for people and their animals, its purpose is to help people live longer, healthier and happier lives. The company also houses the industry’s largest pharmaceutical R&D organization: Pfizer Global Research and Development.
Pfizer’s solution, Catalyst, utilizes several Microsoft technologies, including .NET, BizTalk® Server, SQL Server™ and SharePoint® Portal Server. Catalyst allows industry workers to design, schedule and analyze pharmaceutical manufacturing processes using a graphical user interface in a fraction of the time required by existing electronic and manual systems. While the engineer designs the process, Catalyst calculates detailed design data such as material balances, time-cycle analysis and environmental emissions, as well as automatically configuring shop floor execution and reporting systems. The solution will radically reduce the need for manual review of process data to support a real-time quality system.
Clinical Development
• PRA International, Reston, Va. PRA International is one of the world’s leading global clinical research organizations, with more than 2,400 employees working from offices in North America, Europe, South America, Africa, Australia and Asia. PRA delivers services to its clients through a unique approach called Project Assurance, which represents the company’s commitment to reliable service delivery; program-level therapeutic expertise; easy, global access to knowledge; and involved senior management.
With the help of DataLabs, Inc., PRA International rolled out FlexDMS powered by DataLabs Clinical, using Microsoft Active Directory®, Internet Information Services 6.0, and Microsoft Cluster Server technologies. FlexDMS is a single data management system that unifies the functionality of paper data entry (PDE) with the flexibility of electronic data capture (EDC) into one, easy-to-use electronic clinical data management platform. The solution allows users to design a clinical study once; collect the data either through PDE, EDC or a combination of formats; and then clean and manage the data using the same system and virtually the same process. PRA operates FlexDMS on a common global platform that integrates the company’s data management facilities in Lenexa, Kan.; Victoria, British Columbia; Swansea, Wales; and a new facility in Pune, India.
Pharmaceutical and Life Sciences Innovation Award winners were selected by an esteemed panel of industry experts:
• Philip P. Gerbino, PharmD president, University of the Sciences in Philadelphia
• Scott Lundstrom, research vice president, Life Science Insights, an IDC company
• Benjamin M.W. Rooks, vice president, William Blair & Co.
• Salvatore Salamone, senior contributing editor, “Bio-IT World”
More information about the winners will be highlighted on the Microsoft Life Sciences Web site at http://www.microsoft.com/....
About Microsoft in Healthcare and Life Sciences
Microsoft provides standards-based products and technology to help the healthcare and life sciences industries break down information barriers between the disparate IT environments across pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device companies, physicians and healthcare professionals, provider organizations, government and private-sector employers, health insurers, and consumers. Microsoft’s vision for knowledge-driven health utilizes the company’s market-leading technology to help these groups integrate their systems, dramatically enhance collaboration, and increase information sharing and learning — ultimately resulting in the ability to deliver high-quality products and services to patients and consumers worldwide. More information about Microsoft in Healthcare and Life Sciences can be found at http://www.microsoft.com/....
About Microsoft
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.
Microsoft, Windows, Windows Server, Visual Studio, Visual SourceSafe, BizTalk, SharePoint and Active Directory are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corp. in the United States and/or other countries.
The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.
Note to editors: If you are interested in viewing additional information on Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft Web page at http://www.microsoft.com/... on Microsoft’s corporate information pages. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication, but may since have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at http://www.microsoft.com/....
The awards, announced at the annual meeting of the Drug Information Association (DIA) in Philadelphia, were given to companies that have demonstrated the best use of Microsoft-based solutions for breakthroughs in business processes and practices in each of the categories.
“At Microsoft, we believe that innovative technology use in life sciences can create revolutionary new ways of doing business, resulting in breakthroughs in research, product innovation and corporate performance,” said Steve Shihadeh, general manager of healthcare and life sciences at Microsoft. “The companies we are recognizing today exemplify a transformative use of technology and are helping their people better connect and collaborate, as well as make more-informed decisions that drive overall business success.”
Award Winners
Award participants consisted of worldwide life sciences corporations in biotechnology, diagnostics, medical equipment and devices, pharmaceuticals, animal health, nutritional products, and consumer health products.
The winners of this year’s Pharmaceutical and Life Sciences Innovation Awards are listed here:
Sales and Marketing
• GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) Inc., Mississauga, Ontario. GlaxoSmithKline is one of the world’s leading research-based pharmaceutical and healthcare companies and is committed to improving the quality of human life by enabling people to do more, feel better and live longer.
GSK’s solution utilizes a Tablet PC, powered by Windows® XP Tablet PC Edition, and Proscape Technologies Inc.’s software. The solution has allowed GSK to dramatically reduce the cycle time between introducing a new product marketing campaign and measuring its results. By using Proscape’s software, a sales representative can easily, quickly and effectively convey key product information in an engaging and memorable way through multimedia presentations running on the Tablet PC. Based on data from GSK’s CRM application, these presentations can be tailored for different market segments, thereby maximizing their educational value.
Manufacturing and Supply Chain
• ALTANA Pharma AG, Konstanz, Germany. ALTANA Pharma AG is the pharmaceutical division of ALTANA AG (FSE: ALT, NYSE: AAA), which has its headquarters in Konstanz, Germany. ALTANA Pharma is an internationally successful, research-based company providing innovative pharmaceuticals that create a higher quality of life for patients, modern jobs for highly qualified employees, and a good return for shareholders.
In 2005, ALTANA Pharma AG implemented Wassermann AG’s wayRTS (Real Time Simulation) solution — a 64-bit application using Windows Server® 2003, Visual Studio® 2005, Visual SourceSafe® and the 2003 Microsoft Office system — for the operational planning, simulation and scheduling of its largest supply chain across three production sites and eight sales units. The resulting quality improvement leads to a significantly reduced error rate. Because the process schedules are more reliable and therefore more stable, significantly less time is spent on discussions about better production sequences or rescheduling in general.
• Pfizer Inc., New York. Pfizer Inc. is the world’s largest research-based pharmaceutical company, employing more than 115,000 people. Dedicated to better health and greater access to healthcare for people and their animals, its purpose is to help people live longer, healthier and happier lives. The company also houses the industry’s largest pharmaceutical R&D organization: Pfizer Global Research and Development.
Pfizer’s solution, Catalyst, utilizes several Microsoft technologies, including .NET, BizTalk® Server, SQL Server™ and SharePoint® Portal Server. Catalyst allows industry workers to design, schedule and analyze pharmaceutical manufacturing processes using a graphical user interface in a fraction of the time required by existing electronic and manual systems. While the engineer designs the process, Catalyst calculates detailed design data such as material balances, time-cycle analysis and environmental emissions, as well as automatically configuring shop floor execution and reporting systems. The solution will radically reduce the need for manual review of process data to support a real-time quality system.
Clinical Development
• PRA International, Reston, Va. PRA International is one of the world’s leading global clinical research organizations, with more than 2,400 employees working from offices in North America, Europe, South America, Africa, Australia and Asia. PRA delivers services to its clients through a unique approach called Project Assurance, which represents the company’s commitment to reliable service delivery; program-level therapeutic expertise; easy, global access to knowledge; and involved senior management.
With the help of DataLabs, Inc., PRA International rolled out FlexDMS powered by DataLabs Clinical, using Microsoft Active Directory®, Internet Information Services 6.0, and Microsoft Cluster Server technologies. FlexDMS is a single data management system that unifies the functionality of paper data entry (PDE) with the flexibility of electronic data capture (EDC) into one, easy-to-use electronic clinical data management platform. The solution allows users to design a clinical study once; collect the data either through PDE, EDC or a combination of formats; and then clean and manage the data using the same system and virtually the same process. PRA operates FlexDMS on a common global platform that integrates the company’s data management facilities in Lenexa, Kan.; Victoria, British Columbia; Swansea, Wales; and a new facility in Pune, India.
Pharmaceutical and Life Sciences Innovation Award winners were selected by an esteemed panel of industry experts:
• Philip P. Gerbino, PharmD president, University of the Sciences in Philadelphia
• Scott Lundstrom, research vice president, Life Science Insights, an IDC company
• Benjamin M.W. Rooks, vice president, William Blair & Co.
• Salvatore Salamone, senior contributing editor, “Bio-IT World”
More information about the winners will be highlighted on the Microsoft Life Sciences Web site at http://www.microsoft.com/....
About Microsoft in Healthcare and Life Sciences
Microsoft provides standards-based products and technology to help the healthcare and life sciences industries break down information barriers between the disparate IT environments across pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device companies, physicians and healthcare professionals, provider organizations, government and private-sector employers, health insurers, and consumers. Microsoft’s vision for knowledge-driven health utilizes the company’s market-leading technology to help these groups integrate their systems, dramatically enhance collaboration, and increase information sharing and learning — ultimately resulting in the ability to deliver high-quality products and services to patients and consumers worldwide. More information about Microsoft in Healthcare and Life Sciences can be found at http://www.microsoft.com/....
About Microsoft
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential.
Microsoft, Windows, Windows Server, Visual Studio, Visual SourceSafe, BizTalk, SharePoint and Active Directory are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corp. in the United States and/or other countries.
The names of actual companies and products mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners.
Note to editors: If you are interested in viewing additional information on Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft Web page at http://www.microsoft.com/... on Microsoft’s corporate information pages. Web links, telephone numbers and titles were correct at time of publication, but may since have changed. For additional assistance, journalists and analysts may contact Microsoft’s Rapid Response Team or other appropriate contacts listed at http://www.microsoft.com/....
