BOSTON — June 25, 2008 — Microsoft Corp. today announced winners of the 2008 Pharmaceutical and Life Sciences Innovation Awards, honoring companies that have made the most innovative use of Microsoft-based solutions for breakthroughs in business processes and practices throughout the pharmaceutical and life sciences industry.
Announced at the Drug Information Association’s (DIA) 44th Annual Meeting, the awards were presented in the categories of discovery and product innovation, sales and marketing, and clinical development.
“The companies recognized are examples of true innovators in their approaches to solving some of the major challenges facing the global life sciences industry,” said Michael Naimoli, director of U.S. life sciences industry solutions at Microsoft. “Building on the Microsoft software platform, the winners demonstrated solutions that help streamline clinical trial and discovery processes and improve collaboration, bridging the gap between research, discovery and drug delivery.”
Award Winners
Submissions for this year’s awards came from global life sciences corporations specializing in biotechnology, diagnostics, medical equipment and devices, pharmaceuticals, animal health, nutritional products, and consumer health products. The winners are the following:
-
Discovery and Product Innovation: AstraZeneca and Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. AstraZeneca is a major international healthcare business engaged in the research, development, manufacturing and marketing of prescription pharmaceuticals and is a supplier for healthcare services. With more than 12,000 R&D employees spanning eight countries, centralizing biochemical screening operations across its global R&D centers creates a host of challenges. Typically managed at the local laboratory level, the effort to harmonize disparate processes to record, track and manage a growing number of requests for compound screening was identified as a major hindrance to productivity.
AstraZeneca implemented Thermo Scientific Nautilus Laboratory Information Management Systems (LIMS) to centralize biochemical screenings, map laboratory workflows and dramatically drive efficiency through superior data management. Built on Microsoft’s Visual Studio .NET, Thermo Scientific Nautilus LIMS helped coordinate global requests, automate workflows and standardize screening. Within six months of the deployment, AstraZeneca realized a 180 percent efficiency gain across its laboratories from the centralized screening process.
-
Sales and Marketing: Sanofi-aventis and Brimstone. Sanofi-aventis, a leading global pharmaceutical company, discovers, develops and distributes therapeutic solutions. As the role of today’s pharmaceutical representatives is evolving, they are tasked with delivering real-time product information and clinical and patient support materials to communicate with physicians and other stakeholders across multiple channels.
Sanofi-aventis deployed Brimstone’s customer relationship management (CRM) v06 solution for life sciences to help develop a multichannel CRM solution based on Microsoft Dynamics CRM and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007. Utilizing existing technology investments, the solution helped marketing and sales staff easily segment and analyze customer information to improve the overall sales process and drive business performance.
-
Clinical Development: The Scripps Research Institute and InterKnowlogy. The Scripps Research Institute, one of the country’s largest private, nonprofit research organizations, has become internationally recognized for its basic research across the life sciences and medical industry. As the organization grew its multidisciplinary proteome-wide projects, it required an enhanced collaboration tool that could bridge disparate global teams.
The Scripps Research Institute and InterKnowlogy designed a custom solution using the Microsoft .NET Framework 3.0, Windows Vista and Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 to display cellular, molecular and atomic levels in 2-D and 3-D, while providing tools for annotations. The result was a newfound ability to link multiple kinds of data to an image, making it easier and faster to send information from experiments across the organization. Researchers now spend less time searching for data and more time developing potential treatment solutions.
The 2008 Pharmaceutical and Life Sciences Innovation Award winners were selected by an esteemed panel of industry experts:
-
Scott Lundstrom, vice president, Health Industry Insights
-
Barry Peters, senior director of Corporate Compliance, Telerx
-
Ben Rooks, director, William Blair & Co., Healthcare Investment Banking
-
Sal Salamone, senior contributing editor, Bio-IT World
More information about the winners can be found on the Microsoft Life Sciences Web site at http://www.microsoft.com/lifesciences.
About Microsoft in Health and Life Sciences
Microsoft provides standards-based products and technology to help the health and life sciences industries break down information barriers between the disparate IT environments across pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device companies, physicians and health 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 people in the healthcare provider, payer and life sciences organizations 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 the life sciences industry can be found at http://www.microsoft.com/lifesciences.
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.
Note to editors: If you are interested in viewing additional information on Microsoft, please visit the Microsoft Web page at http://www.microsoft.com/presspass 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/presspass/contactpr.mspx.