SupplyScape and SAP Help Pharmaceutical Companies Enhance Patient Safety Through Pedigree and RFID Initiatives

by SupplyScape

Certification on NetWeaver platform enables integrated solutions to advance patient safety and leverage product security investments

SupplyScape(R) Corporation today announced that they have been certified as 'Powered by NetWeaver' and are working with SAP AG to help pharmaceutical companies secure the drug supply chain against counterfeiting, a problem that has gained momentum in recent years. Now, pharmaceutical companies utilizing the SAP mySAP(TM) ERP and Auto-ID Infrastructure (AII) solutions can leverage SupplyScape's E- Pedigree application to meet current pedigree regulatory requirements, while laying the foundation for a comprehensive security roadmap including product serialization and RFID tagging. The SupplyScape E-Pedigree solution integrates with SAP's Auto-ID Infrastructure (AII), which enables companies deploying RFID or other serialization technology to integrate serialized information into enterprise business processes.

Field-tested Solution for Diverse Pedigree Challenges

State and Federal regulators, responding to an escalating rate of drug counterfeiting incidents in recent years, have established a series of deadlines for the deployment of pharmaceutical pedigree solutions that certify a product's chain of custody. These deadlines, including Florida's July 1, 2006, the FDA's December 1, 2006, and California's January 1, 2009 dates, prescribe a specific set of drug distribution requirements including the generation of product pedigrees.

The relationship between SupplyScape and SAP provides pharmaceutical companies with a field-tested and quickly implementable electronic pedigree solution that is available now to meet these pressing and diverse regulatory requirements, while building the foundation for full item-level serialization and EPCglobal compliance. This field experience is one reason that SAP's pharmaceutical customers such as Purdue Pharma L.P. look to SupplyScape E- Pedigree for their pedigree regulatory and product security needs.

"We are very concerned about protecting patient safety and the pharmaceutical supply chain," said Aaron Graham, Purdue's vice president and chief security officer. "This collaboration allowed us to quickly and inexpensively implement a system to help secure our product lines before counterfeiting became a problem for us."

Streamlined Integration with SAP NetWeaver(R) for Strong Operational Support

Purdue benefited strongly from the seamless integration of data flows and operational processes between mySAP(TM) ERP, SAP Auto-ID Infrastructure (SAP AII), and SupplyScape E-Pedigree. As RFID-tagged items are prepared for shipment, the product and order information is quickly retrieved from mySAP ERP and SAP NetWeaver Exchange Infrastructure and aggregated together to produce the appropriate electronic pedigrees in SupplyScape E-Pedigree. The result is a solution that produces compliant pedigrees without impacting the operational efficiency that Purdue relies upon.

"Pharmaceutical companies have made it clear that they seek a flexible pedigree solution that leverages their SAP investments for regulatory compliance and product security," noted SupplyScape President Shabbir Dahod. "The extensive business support for serialization, system validation, and operational integration capabilities infused throughout E-Pedigree helps manufacturers meet short-term pedigree and product security needs out of the box while opening the door to greater business opportunities."

Collaborative Customer Roadmaps for Patient Safety Strategies

To fully address product safety and security, organizations need a cohesive strategy that fully integrates their disparate ePedigree, product serialization (RFID), and product authentication initiatives, and complies with emerging EPCglobal standards. SupplyScape and SAP are working with customers to build business blueprints that mesh these patient safety enablers together into an integrated program. The result is a roadmap that delivers national and state pedigree compliance, builds a phased approach toward item- level serialization for California, improves trading partner support, and maximizes business benefit leverage.

"Electronic pedigree solutions and product serialization strategies are the foundation for pharmaceutical companies seeking a comprehensive patient safety roadmap," said Jim Sabogal, vice president of Life Sciences Industry Solutions for SAP. "SAP's extensive product investments and industry partnerships across the pharmaceutical industry, demonstrate our commitment to these companies in helping transform patient safety from a market necessity to a business opportunity. SupplyScape's certification of E-Pedigree on SAP's NetWeaver platform is a key element of this strategy. By achieving the 'Powered by NetWeaver' milestone and integrating with SAP AII 4.0, SupplyScape provides SAP's customers with the assurance that E-Pedigree will smoothly integrate with their existing enterprise infrastructure and support near-term operational enhancements such as RFID tagging initiatives."

"SupplyScape's vision is to guide customers along the path to a safe and secure supply chain by building strategies that weave together pedigree, authentication, and digital certificate solutions with product serialization. Working closely with SAP, we are ensuring that organizations truly realize the hoped-for benefits from their patient safety roadmaps, both in enhanced product security and in improved business value", concluded Dahod.

Note: Please join SupplyScape and SAP on our November 30, 2006 Webinar where companies can learn the latest on Federal and State pedigree requirements and integrated pedigree-RFID patient safety programs.