LIMSource News: What's New in July 2009

• LabVantage to Acquire Life Technologies’ SQL*LIMS Business

• IDBS Acquires InforSense to Provide End-to-End Solutions for Research & Development Data Management

• Thermo Fisher Scientific to Deliver LIMS System to Leading Chilean Analytical Testing Lab

• Autoscribe Features LIMS for Commercial Contract Testing Laboratories

• QSI's WinLims Rental Enables Organizations to Reduce Tax Burden

• Waters Ships Empower 2 Business Intelligence Manager

• Thermo Fisher Scientific Announces Biobanking and Biospecimen Managemen Software Solution

• Artel Introduces Software for Pipette Operator Performance Monitoring

• ERP Software Firm Deacom Listed Among 100 Great Supply Chain Partners

• Thermo Fisher Scientific Wins Prestigious Microsoft Pharmaceutical and Life Sciences Innovation Award in Informatics for Second Consecutive Year

• OptiMetrics Selects Velox for Aberdeen Proving Grounds Laboratory Management

• Waters Opens a Window onto Mass Spectrometry With New Primer

• ABB Retains Leading Distributed Control System Market Share Worldwide for 2008

• Pittcon Announces Co-Programming for the 2010 Technical Program

• Revised ANDA Guidance Includes Impurities List

• Drug Importation Measures May Get Boost From New Report

• FDA's cGMP Guidance Adds Advisement on Prevention of Cross-Contamination

• BRIDGE Project Demonstrates Feasibility of Tracking Drug Supply Chain

LabVantage to Acquire Life Technologies’ SQL*LIMS Business

LabVantage Solutions, Inc. will acquire Life Technologies Corporation’s SQL*LIMS business, uniting the premier thin-client LIMS, SAPPHIRE, with a significant global footprint of experienced LIMS professionals. The SQL*LIMS business from Applied Biosystems, a part of Life Technologies, is an enterprise LIMS provider that manages the laboratory process lifecycle. "This transaction creates a powerful combination of technology and people. With more than 250
dedicated LIMS employees around the world, plus an extensive partner network, LabVantage will be even better equipped to meet the needs of customers seeking to deploy LIMS across their global enterprise," said Jim Aurelio, President and CEO of LabVantage. "We will continue to support the SQL*LIMS product and customers with the same high level of care and attention that they receive currently. These customers, indeed, all of our customers, will gain access to a broader portfolio of world-class software products and services," he added. For details, visit http://www.labvantage.com.

IDBS Acquires InforSense to Provide End-to-End Solutions for Research & Development Data Management

IDBS, a leading provider of innovative data management solutions to multinational R&D organizations, has announced that it has concluded an unconditional agreement to acquire InforSense Ltd (InforSense), a company providing award-winning scientific and business intelligence (BI) technologies, in an all-cash transaction. The acquisition will complete in July, 2009. R&D organizations in the public and private sectors rely upon their ability to capture, integrate and interpret their data. This is increasingly hampered by the explosion in volume and diversity of data available to scientists, the global scale of modern R&D activities and the requirement for data to be accessed and searched in context. InforSense’s rapid data integration technologies and web-based interactive analytics perfectly complement IDBS’ strong suite of secure, context-rich data management solutions. This transaction creates a unique supplier who can deliver the entire capture, integration and decision-making infrastructure for R&D organizations worldwide. With the addition of the InforSense product portfolio, IDBS will expand its large scale data integration activities to support international data sharing and broaden its life sciences portfolio into the emerging growth area of biomarker development and personalized medicine. The InforSense brand, its products and partnerships will continue to be vigorously developed, marketed and supported around the world. IDBS, a private company headquartered in the UK and with offices worldwide, provides a range of scalable, secure and searchable data management solutions that support the collection, integration and retrieval of high value data. IDBS’ solutions are designed to manage highly diverse scientific data and processes, and are deployed to a broad customer base across a wide range of sectors including; life sciences, academia, consumer products, material sciences, food technology and energy; they are also used within regulated environments in both pharmaceuticals and manufacturing. IDBS’ solutions provide rigorous data storage and promote the collection of contextual data, which is required to make scientific data relevant and comparable. The company is a trusted partner of large multinational R&D companies and has been the regular recipient of numerous awards, including the Queen’s Award for Enterprise and Innovation. InforSense is a private company with offices in London (UK), Boston (USA) and Shanghai (PRC), and was founded in 1999 to develop and commercialize pioneering technology in the fields of high performance computing, and large scale data mining, originally developed at Imperial College, London. InforSense’s core expertise lies in the development of high performance business and scientific intelligence and in web-based reporting applications that are highly differentiated from standard BI tools by their capacity, rapid implementation and configurability. InforSense applications provide the framework for integrating data from an extremely broad range of data sources, for many multinational organizations from pharmaceuticals to finance. InforSense has also developed state of the art applications to integrate genomics, biomarker and clinical data, that provide a unique offering to researchers in the developing areas of translational and personalized medicine. InforSense’s founder, Professor Yike Guo will take up the role of Chief Innovation Officer at IDBS. This announcement comes shortly after IDBS announced the agreement with the University of Cambridge (UK) under which IDBS is to provide data management solutions to the Department of Chemistry, to improve data sharing across its broad network of academic groups in the UK and elsewhere, and marks the start of an ongoing informatics collaboration that will provide leading-edge technologies for commercialization. For details, visit http://www.idbs.com.

Thermo Fisher Scientific to Deliver LIMS System to Leading Chilean Analytical Testing Lab

Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. has announced that Analab Chile SA, a leading South American analytical testing laboratory,

has selected SampleManager LIMS for use in its laboratories in Chile. Analab Chile S.A. is a contract testing laboratory for microbiological and chemical quality control and food safety. Located in Santiago, Chile, Analab was founded in 1988 to focus on analysis and certification of products for export and domestic consumption including human and animal food products, wine and alcohol, drinking and waste water, agricultural chemicals and fertilizer. As part of a major investment program, Analab is installing an enterprise resource planning system (ERP) across its organization and a LIMS in its laboratory. The LIMS implementation is intended to automate the processes from sample collection and results to report generation for Analab's customers. Thermo Scientific SampleManager LIMS is also being used by Analab to facilitate its quality control tasks. Since Analab Chile SA is accredited to ISO 17025, SampleManager LIMS will facilitate the documentation and compliance requirements for ISO 17025, providing further value to Analab's customers. Luz Maria Espinoza, IT manager from Analab Chile SA, comments: "The decision to invest in a major IT project during 2009 allows Analab to continue to expand the best-in-class service offering to existing and future customers. Analab has been partnering with Thermo Fisher Scientific for many years and has relied on many of the company's technology solutions in its laboratories. Thermo Scientific SampleManager LIMS is the latest installation which, with the help of the company's skilled services consultants, will help us streamline Analab's operations. Thermo Scientific SampleManager LIMS will deliver benefits by automating the laborator pprocess and will allow us to continue to demonstrate compliance for customer projects." The implementation project includes integration of Thermo Scientific SampleManager LIMS with the ERP system and a range of Thermo Scientific laboratory products including two gas chromatographs, one LC/MS system, one HPLC with fluorescence and DAD detectors, atomic absorption and UV-Vis instruments. Following the implementation, Analab will be able to give customers direct access to the LIMS via the Internet, whereby they can track samples and access historic data. For details, visit http://www.thermo.com/informatics.

Autoscribe Features LIMS for Commercial Contract Testing Laboratories

Despite the very wide variety of materials and associated testing that are serviced by commercial (for profit) testing laboratories, all share many requirements together. According to Autoscribe, these requirements are addressed by Matrix Gemini LIMS. The reasons for this include the following. Flexibility – any LIMS must be able to capture, store and report a very wide range of materials and tests. These range from observational tests where results are entered either in text or as choices from pre-selected lists, (such tests can also be captured as images or photographs) to rapid bursts of numeric values as with tensile testers, to numeric data requiring several calculations in order to record the final test result. The format of any numeric value must allow the number of decimals to report, rounding rules and even scientific notation. These test formats and any associated limits or specifications must be user maintained without having to contact the software developers or implementers. Truly configurable – without the requirement to write custom code extensions to the base program or learn some esoteric scripting language. In a testing laboratory, customers change, pricing policies change, materials and tests change and required reporting formats change. A successful LIMS must allow for this. Connectivity – the LIMS must connect with other business software, such as the finance and invoicing system (or be able to produce invoices itself), the customer management system, the analytical instruments or test equipment and either produce customer quality reports or connect to a system that does. Web ready – today's customers can be anywhere in the world and in order to provide world-class service to them, organizations must be able to allow secure access to the LIMS via the Internet. Easy and inexpensive to maintain – to be competitive, a commercial, for profit organization must keep costs down, while providing optimal service and no downtime. Autoscribe's Matrix Gemini LIMS offers all of these benefits to contract testing laboratories. For details, visit http://www.autoscribe.co.uk.

QSI's WinLims Rental Enables Organizations to Reduce Tax Burden

Quality Systems International's (QSI) WinLims Rental solution allows organizations to benefit by reducing their tax burden by the year’s WinLims rental fees. According to QSI, this means that WinLims effectively costs nothing and is essentially ‘free’. WinLims Rental has been specifically developed to enable organizations to save spending significant capital when investing in WinLims, one of the top three global commercial LIMS solutions. The typical cost of purchasing a three concurrent user commercial LIMS is between £15,000 and £25,000. However, with WinLims Rental an organization only needs to pay £265 per month, plus a one-off cost of £549 for the scheme setup fee and a copy of Crystal Reports Professional. As part of the WinLims Rental scheme initial support is included within the monthly fee for five support incidences which, when used, can be replaced for a one-off fee of £200. Experience shows that clients may use up to ten incidences during the setup period, with only an occasional request thereafter. An annual support contract for a three user system would typically cost from £1500 to £2000, so further savings can be made by only buying support incidences when required. Akey financial benefit of WinLims Rental is that the concept involves minimal upfront costs. The small monthly rental payments help to conserve an organization’s working capital, which can then be used for other requirements. WinLims version upgrades are also included within the monthly rental fee, which greatly reduces the ongoing costs for a business. Whereas most LIMS vendors charge a significant amount for upgrades with the rental approach an organization’s LIMS will essentially continue to be improved free of charge. "There are a number of other tangible financial benefits to be gained by taking advantage of the rental approach to running a LIMS,” explained Clive Collier, QSI’s managing director. “The low monthly fees and the short time required to go live with WinLims also means that the return on investment for the rental concept can be as little as three months which compares very favourably with the typical return on investment rate for a capital LIMS purchase which is more like two to three years.” T he WinLims Rental scheme also offers organizations a great degree of business flexibility because they not need to commit to rent for any fixed period and if, after any period of time, they wish to stop using the product, then all they need to do is cease the monthly fee payments. For details, visit http://www.qsiuk.com.

Waters Ships Empower 2 Business Intelligence Manager

Waters Corporation has announced it is now shipping Waters Empower 2 Business Intelligence Manager, a web-based dashboard software solution that provides rapid analysis of critical chromatography performance data for faster, more qualified decisions on laboratory and business operations. Designed with proven business intelligence concepts that have been successful across numerous industries, Business Intelligence Manager's intuitive interface allows lab managers and system administrators using Empower 2 Enterprise Chromatography Software to fully understand and exploit the strengths of their laboratories and identify areas that need added support. For details, visit http://www.waters.com.

Thermo Fisher Scientific Announces Biobanking and Biospecimen Management Software Solution

Thermo Fisher Scientific has announced that its Nautilus LIMS now delivers purpose-built functionality to
meet the specific and unique needs of the biobanking industry. Thermo Scientific Nautilus LIMS for Biobanking and BioSpecimen Management will help manage biospecimen locations, online requests, chain-of-custody and patient
demographics. Built on the superior plate handling, hierarchical sample management and patented workflows of Nautilus LIMS, this new biobanking functionality will contribute to the increasing role of biobanks and biorepositories in meeting research and development requirements for relevant biospecimens. Biospecimens serve as the basis for the novel research and development needed for the discovery of breakthrough drugs and medical treatments. The increased focus on translational medicine and epidemiology has led to a surge in the number of samples generated for research and analysis and to the development of extensive biobanks and repositories that provide the samples and libraries necessary for the high-throughput laboratories engaged in drug discovery research and development. The function of biobanks is quite diverse and can range from the storage of frozen cell aliquots intended for primary pharmaceutical screening and tissue biopsies for disease research to patient DNA samples used by government agencies and large, multi-sample population libraries for translational studies. Thermo Scientific Nautilus LIMS for Biobanks can help accelerate sample analysis by providing optimized logistical and operational support to researchers by ensuring that samples are available when and where they are needed. Nautilus LIMS also delivers well-organized, accurate and timely data, providing both the scientific and business users with meaningful information essential for discovery and the daily decision-making process of the business of the biobank.F or details, visit http://www.thermo.com/informatics.

Artel Introduces Software for Pipette Operator Performance Monitoring

Artel has announced that its Pipette Tracker software can now be used as an effective laboratory management tool to track and monitor pipette operator performance. When used in combination with the ARTEL PCS Pipette Calibration System, the software enables lab managers to implement effective training programs as part of a comprehensive quality control system. Operator pipetting technique competence is a critical laboratory function that significantly contributes to overall data quality. Pipette Tracker helps lab managers monitor operator pipetting performance patterns over time by generating trend analysis reports that track the performance of individual operators. The software also can be programmed to facilitate scheduling of corrective technique training to address problem areas located by the tracking software. Pipette Tracker is used with the PCS to integrate operator performance monitoring and pipetting technique training into a laboratory’s quality control system. The PCS automatically measures and documents the accuracy and precision of volumes dispensed from single-channel pipettes. Portable and robust, the PCS can be used on the bench to calibrate pipettes in minutes. By offering immediate display of volumetric results, the PCS offers operators near automatic feedback on their liquid delivery performance. The immediacy of feedback makes the PCS a useful tool to train operators on proper pipetting technique. The instrument helps demonstrate how minimal changes in technique can have significant influence on the accuracy and precision of pipetted volumes. The immediacy of feedback also allows operators to perform a quick checkup on their technique before a critical test or assay. The Pipette Tracker software is tightly integrated into the PCS and generates the necessary reports to remain in regulatory compliance. The system meets GLP, CLSI and ISO 9000 requirements and can demonstrate a complete audit trail and electronic signature. For details, visit http://www.artel-usa.com.

ERP Software Firm Deacom Listed Among 100 Great Supply Chain Partners

Deacom, Inc., producer of the DEACOM Integrated Accounting and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Software System for chemical manufacturers, has been named a 2009 Great Supply Chain Partner by SupplyChainBrain magazine. The 7th Annual 100 Great Supply Chain Partners listing recognizes vendors and service providers whose solutions have made a significant impact on companies' efficiency, customer service, and overall supply chain performance. Deacom was selected for the list from among the more than 2,700 nominations submitted for more than 500 vendors during a six-month period. "Vendors of every conceivable type of supply chain activity were nominated - from very specialized technologies, to a wide range of third-party logistics, transportation, and consulting services," Brad Berger, publisher of SupplyChainBrain. "The 100 companies that received the most qualified nominations are represented on this year's list." Deacom was chosen based on the successful implementation of the DEACOM System by SEM Products, Inc., a manufacturer of automotive coatings, adhesives, and sealants. With DEACOM, SEM Products was able to increase efficiency by integrating all aspects of its business - including formulation, production, sales, purchasing, inventory management, lot control, reporting, and accounting, in a single ERP software solution. For details, visit http://www.deacom.net.

Thermo Fisher Scientific Wins Prestigious Microsoft Pharmaceutical and Life Sciences Innovation Award in Informatics for Second Consecutive Year

Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. has been named the winner of the Microsoft Corporation 2009 Pharmaceutical and Life Sciences Innovation Award in the Discovery and Product Innovation category, for the second consecutive year. The award honors best-in-class companies for their innovative use of Microsoft-based solutions. Microsoft selected Norway-based Hunt Research Centre and Biobank in recognition of its use of Thermo Scientific Nautilus LIMS to better manage and analyze the large amounts of real-time medical data and provide valuable insight into disease status and progression. Thermo Scientific Nautilus LIMS provided HUNT with a comprehensive biobanking solution to gather, store, manage, track and retrieve large amounts of data securely, and yield real-time, dependable analysis and reports. The Award was presented to Thermo Fisher Scientific and Hunt Research Centre and Biobank to acknowledge the technology solutions used for one of the largest population-based health study ever performed "Whether it is the challenging regulatory environment, dispersed silos of information or changing dynamics within an organization, life sciences companies today face enormous challenges," said Michael Naimoli, U.S. life sciences industry solutions director, Microsoft Corp. "Thermo Fisher Scientific and Hunt Research Centre and Biobank are recognized ... for exemplifying how technology built on the Microsoft software platform can help address these issues by empowering people to better connect, collaborate and make informed decisions to drive advances in science." Hunt Research Centre and Biobank implemented Thermo Scientific Nautilus LIMS to automate their process from the clinic to the laboratory in order to accommodate for the vast scope and progressively increasing study complexity. Building on the Microsoft technology, the Thermo Fisher and Hunt application is used on one of the largest health studies ever performed. Three studies spanning 25 years have been run on an integrated family and personal database of approximately 100,000 people from Norway. The studies support epidemiological, clinical and preventative medical research and offer valuable insight into disease status and progression. Hunt paired Thermo Scientific Nautilus LIMS with Microsoft technology which included InfoPath and SQL Server to increase throughput and automation. "The implementation of Nautilus LIMS has set new standards for functionality and efficient use of the HUNT laboratory resources. Being totally configurable, Nautilus LIMS has been very easy to implement right out-of-the-box while offering the added benefit of being fully compatible with Microsoft Office for maximum ease of use with little or no user training," explains Thor Gunnar Steinsli, LIMS Manager of HUNT Research Centre and Biobank . For details, visit http://www.thermo.com/informatics.

OptiMetrics Selects Velox for Aberdeen Proving Grounds Laboratory Management

Velox Technology Partners has announced that the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Chemical Defense at the Aberdeen Proving Grounds has licensed Velox for their laboratory management project. Aberdeen engaged OptiMetrics to review, select and implement a solution for managing their laboratory and sample processing workflows. Key requirements for the project included: Ability to track samples arriving at the lab, barcodes and storage locations; Dynamic freezer layout that readily adapts to configuration changes; Detailed workflows for tracking samples through the 454 Sequencing protocols; Manager signoff requirements at key steps in the workflow before processing can continue; Regulatory compliance of the application. "We are pleased to have been selected by OptiMetrics for this project. It is notable that there are dozens of packaged laboratory management software solutions, but OptiMetrics review of these products found that Velox would provide the quickest and most cost effective solution for meeting this projects demanding needs.“, says Julia Neel, Chief Technology Officer at Velox Technology Partners, “As a testament to Velox’s capabilities and to OptiMetrics expertise, they were able to take the Velox framework, which had no prior information about samples, experiments or 454 workflows, and in 45 days were able to meet all the project objectives including tracking hundreds of data points in a detailed 55+ step workflow.” Julia continues, “Furthermore, Velox’s adaptable framework ensures that if the data tracking or workflow processes need to change, that the application can be easily modified in support of the new requirements. This affirms the Velox technology framework as a universal enterprise application development tool that can deliver applications in significantly less time than custom built solutions or packaged applications, while providing greater functionality at lower costs.” For details, visit http://www.VeloxTP.com.

Waters Opens a Window Onto Mass Spectrometry With New Primer

Waters Corporation has published a new 65-page primer on mass spectrometry for practitioners and non-practitioners seeking to hone their understanding of the newest sample introduction, ionization, ion separation and detection techniques for quadrupole, hybrid, and ion trap mass spectrometers. The primer includes special sections on UltraPerformance LC (UPLC) as an inlet to the mass spectrometer, ion mobility and recent innovations such as desorption electrospray ionization (DESI), direct analysis in real time (DART), atmospheric GC and atmospheric solids analysis probe (ASAP) technology. Mass spectrometry is a vital tool for the scientific laboratory and involved in countless investigations as varied as solving crimes, outing athletes taking performance enhancing drugs, finding biomarkers of disease, determining the diets of lost civilizations and settling the debate as to whether modern-day chickens are descendants of Tyrannosaurus Rex. The primer was authored by noted columnist Michael Balogh, the long-time author of the column titled MS - The Practical Art that appears regularly in LC-GC magazine. Single copies of the primer (Part No. 715001940) cost $49.50 and can be purchased online at:
http://www.waters.com/waters/partDetail.htm?cid=511539&id=38307&ev=10107527&locale=en_US.

ABB Retains Leading Distributed Control System Market Share Worldwide for 2008

In the newest version of ARC Advisory Group’s “Distributed Control Systems Worldwide Outlook,” study, ABB retained its leading worldwide market position in this core automation market. The study reports that the explosive growth that characterized the DCS (distributed control system) market up until 2008 is gone due to the global economic crisis; ARC forecasts that the compound annual growth rate for this market through 2013 will be curbed to 3%. DCS related services offer the best opportunity for growth in the near future. The ARC report states that the customer demand for value-added services from automation suppliers has never been higher. These include project services such as the Main Automation Contractor (MAC) concept, where the supplier takes full responsibility for all aspects of an automation project, as well as other after-sales DCS services that help end users optimize plant performance. The report also noted that as end users strive to extract every last ounce of performance out of their plants, they need to reduce energy consumption. Aside from raw materials costs, energy ranks as one of the top cost pressures affecting manufacturers today. ARC stated that integrating the automation and power/energy domains of the manufacturing process can yield significant energy cost savings. According to the study, ABB was also the regional market share leader for Europe/Mid East/Africa (EMEA), and the worldwide leader in key global verticals including Upstream Oil & Gas, Power Generation, Mining and Metals. The report also stated that the need to provide services and support for the installed base of DCS systems, estimated at over $65 billion worldwide, is more critical than ever in the current economic climate. For details, visit http://www.arcweb.com or http://www.abb.com.

Pittcon Announces Co-Programming for the 2010 Technical Program

The Pittcon Program Committee has announced the expansion of its co-programming sessions for the 2010 Technical Program. When asked on the value of co-programming to conferees, Program Chairman Janeth Pifer stated, "These newly formed and existing relationships add diversity and strength to our Technical Program. Co-programming offers a mutually beneficial venture which permits organizations to combine ongoing efforts with Pittcon to help achieve the common goal of advancing the chemical and laboratory sciences on a global level." For the first time, the Association for Laboratory Automation (ALA) has formed an education-based collaboration with Pittcon which will focus on student research involving unique and compelling laboratory automation. According to ALA President Erik Rubin, this new alliance with Pittcon advances both organizations' educational missions and grows support of students in the laboratory sciences. Pittcon is also pleased to welcome the Japanese organization, Professionals' Network in Advanced Instrumentation Society (PAI-NET), to the Technical Program. The primary focus of PAI-NET is to make the best practice of instrumental analytical technology to promote peace and prosperity in the world of tomorrow; their vision is to educate technicians in and promote the usage of instrumental analysis. The American Chemical Society (ACS) will once again present symposia at Pittcon 2010. Also part of the co-programming will be technical sessions by the Society for Applied Spectroscopy (SAS), the Association of Lab Managers (ALMA), the Japan Analytical Instruments Manufacturers Association Society (JAIMA), the Society for Electroanalytical Chemistry (SEAC), and speakers from ANALíTICA Latin-America. For details, visit http://www.pittcon.org.

Revised ANDA Guidance Includes Impurities List

A final guidance for generic-drug makers revises recommendations on what chemistry, manufacturing and controls information on drug substances produced by synthesis should be included in ANDAs, drug master files and ANDA supplements. Drugmakers should include a list of impurities in specifications for a drug substance and describe acceptance criteria for them in their submissions, according to the guidance issued the week of July 13, 2009. For details, visit http://www.fda.gov.

Drug Importation Measures May Get Boost From New Report

A new report that shows the U.S. remained the most expensive market for brand drugs in 2008, with European prices averaging 60 percent of U.S. prices, may give traction to drug-import legislation. The “2009 Chartbook of International Pharmaceutical Prices” released by Decision Resources, a market research firm, also found that the average price for brand drugs in Japan was 66 percent of the cost of U.S. medicines last year. According to the report, "Payers in all countries are increasing their pressure on manufacturers to cut prices. But prescription drug pricing and reimbursement policies vary markedly among the leading pharmaceutical markets, so, to best determine pricing, pharmaceutical companies need to be aware of international price differentials. This report, featuring 33 data-rich tables and figures, provides comparisons of ex-manufacturer prices for 170 best-selling drugs in seven major markets and by select therapeutic area." For details, visit http://www.decisionresources.com.

FDA's cGMP Guidance Adds Advisement on Prevention of Cross-Contamination

All penicillin finished-drug makers, including repackers, must create a comprehensive control strategy to prevent cross-contamination of other drugs with penicillin, according to the FDA's cGMP guidance. The FDA has added a section on penicillin drugs to its earlier guidance, “Questions and Answers on Current Good Manufacturing Practices (cGMP) for Drugs.” For details, visit http://www.fda.gov.

BRIDGE Project Demonstrates Feasibility of Tracking Drug Supply Chain

A European pilot program that included participants from the generic-drug industry has shown that tracing drugs in the supply chain is possible — from packaging to retail sales. Implemented correctly, such a program can improve recall systems, better manage inventory and increase efficiency, Henri Barthel, the Building Radio-frequency Identification solutions for the Global Environment (BRIDGE) project coordinator, told participants at the Global GS1 Healthcare Conference. The BRIDGE program, which began in July 2006 and concluded last year, was a joint project of the EU and industry designed to create a complete supply-chain traceability system for pharmaceuticals to increase efficiency and improve patient safety. For details, visit http://www.bridge.bris.ac.uk.

What's New - July 2009 The following is a wrap-up of news of interest during the month of July 2009

What's New - July 2009
The following is a wrap-up of news of interest during the month of July 2009