Advertisement
(Logo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20000822/MSFTLOGO)
Announced at the Drug Information Association's (DIA) 44th Annual Meeting,the awards were presented in the categories of discovery and productinnovation, sales and marketing, and clinical development.
Advertisement
"The companies recognized are examples of true innovators in theirapproaches to solving some of the major challenges facing the global lifesciences industry," said Michael Naimoli, director of U.S. life sciencesindustry solutions at Microsoft. "Building on the Microsoft software platform,the winners demonstrated solutions that help streamline clinical trial anddiscovery processes and improve collaboration, bridging the gap betweenresearch, discovery and drug delivery."
Award Winners
Submissions for this year's awards came from global life sciencescorporations specializing in biotechnology, diagnostics, medical equipment anddevices, pharmaceuticals, animal health, nutritional products, and consumerhealth products. The winners are the following:
-- Discovery and Product Innovation: AstraZeneca and Thermo FisherScientific Inc. AstraZeneca is a major international healthcare businessengaged in the research, development, manufacturing and marketing ofprescription pharmaceuticals and is a supplier for healthcare services. Withmore than 12,000 R&D employees spanning eight countries, centralizingbiochemical screening operations across its global R&D centers creates a hostof challenges. Typically managed at the local laboratory level, the effort toharmonize disparate processes to record, track and manage a growing number ofrequests for compound screening was identified as a major hindrance toproductivity.
AstraZeneca implemented Thermo Scientific Nautilus Laboratory InformationManagement Systems (LIMS) to centralize biochemical screenings, map laboratoryworkflows and dramatically drive efficiency through superior data management.Built on Microsoft's Visual Studio .NET, Thermo Scientific Nautilus LIMShelped coordinate global requests, automate workflows and standardizescreening. Within six months of the deployment, AstraZeneca realized a 180percent efficiency gain across its laboratories from the centralized screeningprocess.
-- Sales and Marketing: Sanofi-aventis and Brimstone. Sanofi-aventis, aleading global pharmaceutical company, discovers, develops and distributestherapeutic solutions. As the role of today's pharmaceutical representativesis evolving, they are tasked with delivering real-time product information andclinical and patient support materials to communicate with physicians andother stakeholders across multiple channels.
Sanofi-aventis deployed Brimstone's customer relationship management (CRM)v06 solution for life sciences to help develop a multichannel CRM solutionbased on Microsoft Dynamics CRM and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007.Utilizing existing technology investments, the solution helped marketing andsales staff easily segment and analyze customer information to improve theoverall sales process and drive business performance.
-- Clinical Development: The Scripps Research Institute andInterKnowlogy. The Scripps Research Institute, one of the country's largestprivate, nonprofit research organizations, has become internationallyrecognized for its basic research across the life sciences and medicalindustry. As the organization grew its multidisciplinary proteome-wideprojects, it required an enhanced collaboration tool that could bridgedisparate global teams.
The Scripps Research Institut
