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

WOBURN, Mass., Nov. 6 /PRNewswire/ -- 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.

About SupplyScape

SupplyScape(R) Corporation is a leading provider of supply chain security software and expertise to drive maximum security and value in the pharmaceutical supply chain. A pioneer in defining both the open universal standards-based electronic pedigree solution and the EPC authentication service for the pharmaceutical industry, SupplyScape provides electronic pedigree, digital certificates and drug identity authentication software and services. The company's solutions enable pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, wholesalers, distributors, third party logistics providers (3PLs) and pharmacies to maximize patient safety and product revenue throughout the pharmaceutical and biotechnology value chains. For more information, visit http://www.supplyscape.com/.

Any statements contained in this document that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements as defined in the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Words such as "anticipate," "believe," "estimate," "expect," "forecast," "intend," "may," "plan," "project," "predict," "should" and "will" and similar expressions as they relate to SAP are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. SAP undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements. All forward-looking statements are subject to various risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from expectations The factors that could affect SAP's future financial results are discussed more fully in SAP's filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"), including SAP's most recent Annual Report on Form 20-F filed with the SEC. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of their dates.

SAP, SAP NetWeaver, mySAP and other SAP products and services mentioned herein as well as their respective logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of SAP AG in Germany and in several other countries all over the world. All other product and service names mentioned are the trademarks of their respective companies. Data contained in this document serve informational purposes only. National product specifications may vary.