76 J u n e 20 03 PharmaVOICE EMEDIA NEW ELECTRONIC AND WEBBASED APPLICATIONS, SITES, AND TECHNOLOGIES Choice Media has expanded its health newscov erage through an agreement with Ivanhoe Broad cast News, a newsgathering organization covering medical information for television stations. The rela tionship provides Ivanhoe’s health news across the entire Choice Media Network of leading consumer and professional health Websites serving more than 6 million unique visitors. “Expanding the quantity and quality of our health content is a key element to the turnkey adver tising representation services we offer our bluechip customers,”says Dr. Ash Nashed, president, cofounder, and CEO of Choice Media.“Ivanhoe is a leader in pro ducing quality, editorially objective consumercentric health news and information to television stations, and we look forward to expanding the company’s reach online to mil lions of consumers across the Choice Media Network.” ChoiceMedia sites also allow users to instantly e mail Ivanhoe stories of interest, as well as to create printerfriendly versions, and to enhance communi cation with family members, physicians, and other healthcare providers. “We are pleased to be selected by a leading health network to supply medical news,” says Mar jorie BekaertThomas,president of Ivanhoe Broadcast Covance Inc.’s StudyTracker Version 2 includes bioanalytical,metabolism, and reproductive and developmental toxicology data in addition to sched ules and reference information.The previous version was the first secure sys tem to allow pharmaceutical and biotechnology clients to monitor their toxicology studies in near realtime via the Internet.This version makes it easier for users to access more data in near realtime enabling them to potentially reduce the timelines of drug development. StudyTracker provides Covance clients with the ability to view all of their critical data 24/7 via the Internet from virtually anywhere in the world; the highest level of Internet security available on a worldwide basis through a series of firewalls, strong SecurID user authentication, and 128bit encryption;rapid, secure access to more drugdevelopment data and information;a new level of efficiency to managing projects;and comprehensive data to make critical assessments that allow clients to move forward with promising drug candidates more quickly. “Our goal is to continuously enhance StudyTracker to bring even higher levels of efficiency to global nonclinical drugdevelopment projects,” says Tony Cork, president of early development, Europe, at Covance. “We are launching StudyTracker Version 2 to help make that goal a reality. The addi tion of near realtime access for bioanalytical and metabolism data and infor mation is a direct response to our customers’ requests.” StudyTracker allows pharmaceutical and biotechnology sponsors to use Covance’s crossfunctional scientific and regulatory expertise at several sites to fast track their products out of discovery and into clinical proof of concept. Covance Launches System to ENHANCE DRUG SAFETY EVALUATION News.“This agreement allows us to expand ourWeb presence through Choice Media’s Network of sites, including drkoop.com, HealthCentral, HealthScout, MDChoice, and RxList.” In addition, Choice Media has secured an exclu sive advertising representation agreement with Mental Health Matters. The agreement adds a new vertical market, mental health, to the Choice Media Network. Mental Health Matters’ Web site, mentalhealthmatters.com, owned by Get Mental Help Inc., was founded as an anonymous avenue to supply information and resources to mentalhealth con sumers, professionals, students, and supporters. For consumers, the site offers detailed technical briefs on disorders, symptoms, treatment modes, and in time, a “comparison engine” that allows users to compare different aspects of disorders. For students, the site’s goal is to provide real experience about the population they will be treating and assist them in becoming competent professionals.The profession al market has access to peerdiscussion boards where physicians can ask difficult questions of other mentalhealth providers, as well as public boards where they will be encouraged to ask questions of both consumers and students. Expanding the quantity and quality of our health content is a keyelement to the turnkey advertising representation services we offer our bluechip customers. DR.ASH NASHED According to Tony Cork, Covance customers will be able to channel important scientific data to aid them in their commercial decision making processes, as if they were in the laboratory located just down the hall. Choice Media Expands Online Health Coverage TO INCLUDETV ANDMENTALHEALTH NEWS SoftWatch Program INCREASES MARGINS FOR WEBBASEDMARKETING SoftWatch Inc.’s Agency Partner Program is designed to help agencies respond to growing client demand for integrated online solutions. The program is designed for thirdparty providers of strategic communications and creative services for online pharmaceutical marketing. Through the program,agencies can extend their Webbased service offerings to help clients create a costeffective marketing and communications channel for engaging and retaining patients, physi cians,advocates, and other healthcare stakeholders. “The goal of this program is to create effective partnerships that share in the risk and reward of doing business,” says Fred King, CEO of SoftWatch. “Today’s agencies face a significant opportunity to use the Web to drive additional revenue streams as well as strengthen their client relationships. By lever aging our prebuilt healthcare portal technology, agencies can focus on delivering higher margin ser vices that benefit their bottom line, while optimizing their clients’online marketing success.” SoftWatch solutions provide an extensible Web environment for deploying dynamic healthcare con sumer and professional portals in such key areas as patient compliance, advocacy, and physician out reach, as well as disease and wellness management. The program provides each partner with the oppor tunity to evaluate and commit to an alliance strate gy that aligns with business objectives and compe tencies. Key program benefits include a comprehensive portal management framework; scalable, proven technology; technology standard ization throughan enterprisewide system capable of supporting multiple Websites; and centralized man agement and control over brand marketing activity. 77 PharmaVOICE J un e 20 03 Emedia To address the growing bud geting crisis associated with clinical trials, RapidTrials has launched Bud get Builder, the industry’s first online clinicaltrial budgeting tool that uses marketdriven pricing data to generate accurate study and sitespecific budgets for every clinical trial. The new tool is designed to help anyone involved in clinical trials — sponsors, CROs, and research sites — to calculate accurate marketdriven budgets and determine how to best allo cate resources to successfully com plete studies. Research has shown that amounts budgeted for identical clinicaltrial procedures can vary by up to 300%. Additionally, those budgets at the low end of the scale can be under the average for other sites in the same study by as much as $5,000 for the same set of proce dures. Budget Builder generates low, median, and highprice points for each budget line item based on uptotheminute real world pricing data collected from hundreds of studies across therapeutic areas. The tool also provides a Medicare baseline for each procedure for comparison. Once generated, this information provides an accu rate financial picture for users to review before investing significant time and money in a clinical trial. “For too long, clinicaltrial bud geting has been based largely on anecdotal information by both research sites and sponsors,” says Tracy Blumenfeld, president and CEO of RapidTrials.“Budget Builder is the ultimate reality check. It pro vides common budgeting data so all parties can make more informed and accurate decisions about the viability of a given protocol.” Budget Builder generates rates for each clinicaltrial line item based on a sixstep process that takes about 20 minutes.The tool prompts users to capture and record all infor mation and resources required to conduct a specific protocol on a persite basis. It also helps sites/sponsors identify and plan for any fixed costs associated with the study, including advertising, added equipment costs, patient stipends, and archiving fees. Based on information entered, Budget Builder’s proprietary database automatically generates a range of pricing options for each study procedure code listed. RapidTrials Unveils CLINICALTRIAL BUDGETINGTOOL PhRMA Creates Website to HIGHLIGHT PATIENT ASSISTANCE PROGRAMS A new online database was created by the Phar maceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA) to help patients without prescription drug coverage access userfriendly information about more than 1,400 medicines offered free through patientassistance programs sponsored by the phar maceutical industry and others. The Website, helpingpatients.org, allows people who need help in obtaining medicines to fill out an online form and receive a list of programs for which they may qualify. “The pharmaceutical industry has a long practice of providing prescription medicines free of charge to patients who might not be able to afford them,”says PhRMA President Alan F. Holmer.“In 2002 alone, our companies have helped more than 5 million patients get the medicines they need. We also are committed to a longterm solution to ensure that seniors and the disabled have access to the medicines they need.” MetaWorks Database Provides RA CLINICALTRIAL INFORMATION MetaWorks Inc.’s recently launched Treatment of Rheumatoid Arthritis MetaMap v.4.0 is an extensive relational database of comprehensive evaluated clinicaltrial data for the pharmacological and bio logical treatment of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). The database contains information resulting from the systematic review of published medical literature, dating from 1966 to the present. “Recognizing the daunting task of launching new or improved clinicaldrug initiatives, MetaWorks has compiled an evidence base of published data on key decisions and supporting regulatory docu ments for our clients throughout the development process,” says Shubh L. Sethi,president and CEO of MetaWorks. The Treatment of RA MetaMap is a knowledge mining tool that can help set parameters for clinical trials by defining patient populations and assessing outcomes against established interventions. “Additionally, the MetaMap supports efforts to refine messaging as a drug approaches marketing and commercialization,” Ms. Sethi says. “It provides a repository of clinical data that commercialization teams can use to identify, and even quantify, differ entiation from products currently in the market place. This information becomes crucial for new products in a therapeutic area where there have been so many recent advances.” This latest version facilitates efficient literature searching and helps to assess the appropriateness of a drug intervention through examination, compari son, and evaluation of outcomes. ProModel Launches PHARMACEUTICALSOLUTIONS PRACTICE ProModel Solutions is now offering the pharmaceutical industry simulation technologies.The company’s Pharmaceutical Solutions practice has developed customized solutions for project portfolio and resource capacity management in R&D across both drug discovery and development organizations. ProModel’s Pharmaceutical Solutions are driven by its proprietary technolo gy,referred to as VAO,which is built upon a powerful simulation engine that can take into account multiple business assumptions, data variability, resource con tention, and complex interdependencies. The company’s solutions range from highlevel strategic planning to detailed project planning. These include Portfolio VAO Solutions, which helps organizations makemore strategic planning decisions through ProModel’s proven methodology and Portfolio Simulator application; and Project VAO Solutions, which helps organizations create more realistic and reliable project plans through ProModel’s proven methodology and Project Simulator application; and Enterprise VAO Solution, which seamlessly integrates the Project VAO Solution with the Portfolio VAO Solution to create an enterprisebased system. ProModel’s methodology allows portfolio and project decision makers to optimize their plans and com municate a clear direction for the organization. By combining slightly variable shortterm milestones with highly variable longterm projections that incor porate data variability, resource requirements/capacities, and statistical survival rate assumptions, planners are able to accurately predict outcomes of their business scenarios.This capability provides pharmaceutical exec utives with a lowrisk, yet powerful,dashboard to evaluate, optimize, and set the direction for the company’s projects and overall portfolio. Supporting the company’s efforts is Pfizer, which is collaborating with ProModel Solutions as well as tak ing an equity position of 14% in the company to help drive optimization and decision support within the organization. According to Tracy Blumenfeld, Budget Builder provides common clinicaltrial budgeting data so all parties can make more informed and accurate decisions about the viability of a given protocol. Pfizer is collaborating with ProModel Solutions by taking anequity position of 14% in the company. 78 J u n e 20 03 PharmaVOICE Emedia CHOICE MEDIA INC.,Somerville, N.J.,is the secondlargest online health network in the world with more than 6 million monthly worldwide visitors. For more information,visit choicemedia.com. COVANCE INC.,Princeton,N.J., is one of the world’s largest and most comprehensive drugdevelopment services companies.For more information, visit covance.com. GEOSCAPE INTERNATIONAL INC., Miami, is a privately held company dedicated to providing multicultural and multinational market intelligence information systems enabling more effective business strategy. For more information, visit geoscape.com. IVANHOE BROADCASTNEWS,Orlando, Fla., is a leading television newsgathering organization covering medical breakthroughs, family health, and consumer news for women.For more information, visit ivanhoe.com. METAWORKS INC., Medford,Mass., is a healthcare consulting company focused on clinical drug development and commercialization within the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and healthcare industries.For more information,visit metaworksinc.com. THE PHARMACEUTICALRESEARCHAND MANUFACTURERSOFAMERICA, Washington,D.C., represents the country’s leading researchbased pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies,which are devoted to inventing medicines that allow patients to live longer, healthier, and more productive lives. For more information, visit phrma.org. PRISYM INC.,Charlotte, N.C.,specializes in providing labeling solutions to a wide range of bluechip customers in the regulated marketplace with complex label requirements, such as the pharmaceutical,medicaldevice, and biotechnology markets. For more information, visit prisyminc.com. PROMODEL SOLUTIONS,Bethlehem,Pa., is a leading business process optimization and decisionsupport company serving the Follow up pharmaceutical,healthcare, and manufacturing industries.For more information, visit promodel.com. RAPIDTRIALS,Wayne,Pa., is a clinicaltrial accelerator and a company exclusively focused on driving clinicaltrial performance at the site level,offering assistance to research centers, directly and through their sponsors and CROs.For more information, visit rapidtrials.com. SCIQUEST INC.,Research Triangle Park,N.C., provides technology, services, and domain expertise to optimize procurement and materials management for the lifesciences, industrial research,and higher education markets For more information,visit sciquest.com. SOFTWATCH INC., NewYork, is a leading provider of Internet relationship management software and services for the global health and lifesciences industries.For more information,visit softwatch.com. SciQuest Launches LIFECYCLE BIOLOGICALS MANAGER SciQuest Inc.’s recently launched LifeCycle Bio logicals Manager is a materialsmanagement solu tion that streamlines biological sample manage ment to reduce redundant processes and enable global access to criticalresearch assets. LifeCycle Biologicals Manager is designed for life science organizations seeking to consolidate biological assets and related data and enable global access to sam ples used and created in the drugdiscovery process. The tool assists organizations in all aspects of biologicals man agement,including collection, characterization, acquisition, and logistics. The solution enables researchers to submit biological samples into a cen tralized database using customized forms that cap ture key properties specific to each sampleclass,such as vectors, microbial strains, or cell lines. Using a com prehensive search interface, researchers can locate and order biological samples from local or centralized storage facilities. Repository managers can fulfill orders and globally manage sample inventory. Prisym Releases FDA 21 CFR Part 11 COMPLIANT LABELING SOFTWARE Prisym Inc. has released a new version of its Prisymedica lifesciences labeling software that is FDA 21 CFR Part 11 compliant and provides full lifecycle documentation and onsite validation support.The single work station version aims to provide a more costeffective option for singlesite medicaldevice companies and pharmaceutical manufacturers.The new version has the same functionality as the original Prisymedica,includ ing electronic signature. In the new version,however, scalability is reduced. The updated version was developed as a result of huge demand from smaller companies that do not need a network solution to maintain FDA 21CFRPart 11 compliance.The latest Prisymedica system comes with stan dard lifecycle documentation that is necessary for validation as well as onsite validation support to ensure a truly compliant solution. Geoscape Provides Online MULTICULTURAL MARKET INTELLIGENCE DATA Detailed multicultural marketing information is accessible via aWebbrowser through a series of userfriend ly, marketing tools. Dubbed “The Gateway to Multicultural Market Intelligence,” the Geoscape Intelligence Sys tem, or GIS, provides marketers with a wealth of recent economic,geographical, and demographic data to per form a wide range of analysis, charting, and mapping. “Multicultural markets are key to business growth,” says Cesar M. Melgoza, founder and president of Geoscape International.“For years we have been providing consulting services and building information tech nology to help our clients understand Hispanic,Asian,AfricanAmerican, and other cultural segments.Now we are providing these capabilities online in a manner that is both powerful and costeffective.” GIS features nine different modules for R&D enhancements,all designed with userfriendly functions to quick ly and easily extract information.The tool combines recent demographic and geographical data with forecasted census data to enhance the precision of reports and download files. The DirecTarget, which provides ethnicity, race,country,and origin identification employs a combination of immigration and settlement data to predict the likely country of origin of individuals within a database. This solution enables researchers to submit biological samples into a centralized database.
