Ribotsky Worldwide Inc., a fullservice communications company, has expanded its offerings to clients through a new division. Strategic Healthcare Solutions provides healthcare markettrends analy sis, competitive market and brand analysis, and healthcare marketcommunications analysis. Strate gic Health care Solutions is equipped to assist com panies in developing and integrating brand and cor porate messaging and positioning and provide a business case for promotional and business com munications plans and spending. The new offering also provides highly specific disease category trou bleshooting, issues management, and integrated business solutions. “Ribotsky Worldwide has always been devoted to being the most creative and strategic indepen dent healthcare communications agency for our clients,” says Ken Ribotsky, president and founder of Ribotsky Worldwide.“It has become increasingly evi dent that healthcare market needs are changing.We are evolving in order to exceed the market’s busi ness expectations, and offer a new service to meet this demand.” Bob Karczewski, RPh,was named executive VP of Strategic Health care Solutions. Mr. Karczewski has been with the agency for six years, and has more than 20 years of agency and pharmaceutical business experience. Mr. Karczewski began his career working in a number of sales and marketing roles at Lederle Labs, which is currently part of American Home Products. “More and more companies are forcing market ing and product development groups to integrate at the R&D level,” Mr. Karczewski says. “We see Strategic Health care Solutions group as an independent offer ing that will serve an emerging segment of the healthcare communications market. “By providing invaluable new and emerging market insights and research, the Strategic Health care Solutions group will give the client and RWW an unparalleled view of the competitive landscape, allowing us to work together to better define and reach our client’s busi ness goals.” Ribotsky Worldwide’s other offerings include: Alpha & Omega Worldwide, a medical education company, and Ribotsky & Co. Communications, a mediabuying company. Ribotsky Worldwide is a member of the IN Network,an international network of independent advertising agencies with member agencies located on five continents, and is the healthcare communications agency specialist for the United States. CSC REALIGNS healthcare operations Computer Sciences Corp., responding to industry demands for complete business solutions, has realigned its U.S. healthcare operations to provide more tightly integrated services to its healthcare clients. “Leading healthcare companies today demand comprehensive solutions — spanning industry and tech nology strategy, business process integration, enabling applications and infrastructure — that are integrated and managed as a whole against strategic busi ness objectives,” says Van Honeycutt, CSC’s chair man and CEO. “CSC’s actions today position the company to more effectively — and more effi ciently — satisfy that demand.” To that end, CSC is combining certain func tions in its existing Healthcare Group with similar or identical functions in other groups to consoli date expertise. “By rationalizing our support to clients in the healthcare industry, we leverage the broad resources of CSC and deliver them as one com pany,while taking advantage of the synergies this realignment affords us,” says Pete Boykin, CSC’s president and chief operating officer. “Our goals of delivering superior service and achieving high customer satisfaction remain unchanged, as does our strategic commitment to the healthcare market,”Mr. Boykin notes. Under the realignment, CSC is moving its healthcare consulting practice into its North American Consulting Group. Daniel Garrett, previ ously a VP in CSC’s Healthcare Group, heads the practice.Mr.Garrett also is responsible for coordinating all healthcare activities across CSC. CSC’s portfolio of healthcare application products now is managed from CSC’s competency center for ver tical industry applications. CSC’s Technology Management Group continues to have overall service delivery responsibility for healthcare outsourcing clients.TMG is the company’s North American outsourcing center of competence and provides best practices for managing large, complex accounts. Art Spiegel,who has managed CSC’s Healthcare Group since its formation in 1996,will retire from the com pany at the end of the year. CSC serves clients in the provider, health plan, life sciences, and medical sciences segments of the industry. The company provides integration and consulting services for systems installation and implementation, for medical management and for supply chain redesign.CSC’s outsourcing solutions provide a wide range of ser vices from claims imaging and storage to full claims administration with member and provider services. Ribotsky Worldwide EXPANDS ANALYTICAL SERVICES with new division Strategic Health care Solutions is equipped to assist clients in developing and integrating brand and corporate messaging and positioning through market trend analysis WHAT’S NEW NEW HEALTHCARERELATED PRODUCTS, SERVICES, AND COMPANIES Bob Karczewski says identifying emerging trends will help clients better define and reach their business goals. Van Honeycutt, CSC chairman and CEO, and Pete Boykin, president and chief operating officer, respond to industry demands for complete business solutions, by realigning CSC’s U.S. healthcare operations. WHAT’S new 83 PharmaVOICE M a r c h 2 002 Directions Research opens division for PHARMACEUTICAL MARKETRESEARCH Directions Research Inc., recognizing that the needs of the pharmaceutical industry are constantly evolving, has created a new division called Directions Healthcare Research. The division expects to capitalize on DRI’s market research experience across an array of business categories, expertise and resources, taking the compa ny’s pharmaceutical research services to a new level. “We recognized the need to have a specialized division for the pharmaceutical industry,”DRI President and Founder Randy Brooks says.“We are positioning ourselves so that phar maceutical clients have better access to our industry expertise, indepth knowledge and resources.” The new division is led by Scott Layne,VP and general manager,and a 20year market research veteran. “Being a successful marketresearch practitioner means being wellversed and experienced,”Mr. Layne says. ”For that reason we’re continuing to build staff with people who have a pharmaceutical background. We want to help our pharmaceutical clients take advantage of vertical opportunities.” DRI has been actively developing relationships and managing phar maceutical clients since 1995.DHR is managed by industry veterans, Dr. Charlotte MackensonDean and Dr. Lisa Rayder. In related company news,DRI has opened a new office in Newtown, Pa.The new office is to be managed Dr. Rayder. As a VP/account execu tive, her responsibilities include sales, analytical, and consulting services for pharmaceutical clients.“By expanding in the Northeast, we are mak ing an investment so that healthcare clients have better access to our industrybased expertise,”Mr. Layne says. TRW offers hosting services to help healthcare companies COMPLY WITH IT REGULATIONS TRW Inc. has introduced outsourced hosting services to help pharmaceutical and healthcare companies comply with international and Food & Drug Administration informationtechnology regulations. TRW’s regulated system hosting services combine technology infrastructure and associated services nec essary to support compliance with new Federal regulatory requirements, which include specific documenta tion, processes, and operational services.These new regulations include Title 21 CFR Part 11 — the FDA’s elec tronic records, and electronic signatures — and the Healthcare Insurance Portability & Accountability Act. The service is being offered by TRW Systems, a $3.2 billion business unit of TRW, which provides systems, services, and information technology to government and industry. “TRW is uniquely positioned to fill this much needed capability for our biopharma and healthcare cus tomers,”says Bill Wilson,VP of TRW’s commercial healthcare business. Relsys International, a provider of software applications for the regulatory compliance and monitoring of product safety data from pharmaceuticals and medical devices, has keen interest in a regulated system host ing model.“Pharma customers face long implementation cycles and additional IT and deployment costs asso ciated with systems validation and compliance not seen in other industries,”says Dave Bajaj,president and CEO of Relsys.“We have seen a tremendous increase in interest in the delivery of Argus Safety Web,our Webbased drug safety software solution, via a `turn key’hosted model.” The servicelevel agreement for TRW’s offering includes both guaranteed system availability along with the specific documentation, processes, and operational services required for compliance with 21 CFR Part 11 and HIPAA.“This is the only service I am aware of that makes outsourced hosting a viable option for customers with strict regulatory and quality assurance requirements,”says Benn Stratton, general manager of Stellar Systems,a systems integrator specializing in regulated systems management. TRW’s service includes seven areas to support regulated applications: platform availability, platform infras tructure,administration andmaintenance,monitoring,business continuity,validation andquality assurance,and customer service and support. The service agreement includes the networking, data center, hardware, and operating software — including common applications such as databases and Web servers — necessary to support most Web and clientserver applications. Additional valueadded services such as support for digital signatures,user authentication,XML integration,electronic regulatory submissions,disaster recovery,and active archive management will be available in three to six months. Medical and healthcare guide EXPANDS REACH for market researchers The 17th edition of the Medical & Healthcare Marketplace Guide, the most comprehensive biomedical industry resource, features two volumes containing more than 700 articles from world renowned biomedical industry experts, plus expanded coverage of markets and leading phar maceutical, medical device, and healthcare compa nies throughout the world. In addition to quick updates on specific tech nologies and market trends in the biomedical indus try, market researchers and product managers, as well as corporate development and business intelli gence rely on the guide’s complete listing of 20,000 key executives in the global biomedical industry, including names,email addresses,and phone num bers, to promote products,clinical testing,and meth ods.Researchers can find more than 6,500 company profiles containing information such as financial his tories, level of business activities, and ownership. “There are $2.8 trillion in worldwide medical and healthcare expenditures annually,” says Robert Smith, editor in chief of the guide. “This is the only information resource that defines this industry in its total perspective, including its four major categories — pharmaceuticals and related products and ser vices, medical devices and related products and ser vices, clinical healthcare services, and nonclinical healthcare services.” The guide includes a glossary and acronyms sec tion, biomedical company mutations, the company master list, companies grouped by market classes, company descriptions, the geographic index, and the executive index. “The guide has a 20year track record as the pre mier source for researching the medical and health care industry,” adds Bob Graham, CEO of Dorland Healthcare Information. In conjunction with the print version of the guide, Dorland’s updated online offering,MHMGonline.com, mirrors the print publication’s data, but also provides weekly updates reflecting company additions, address and personnel changes.MHMGonline brings market researchers up to date on crucial industry news such as joint ventures, alliances, mergers, and new product introductions. The online version, fully searchable by key word and zip code, is available sep arately or bundled with the print version. The cost of the print directory in the U.S. is $690 plus $9.95 shipping; Internet subscriptions are $799 for a singleuser password,providing unlimited usage for one year fromdateofpurchase.Multiuser andcor porate Intranet pricings are available. The print direc tory and a singleuser Internet subscription can be purchased together for a discounted price of $965. Dr. Lisa Rayder, as head of Directions Research’s new Pennsylvania office, is responsible for sales, analytical, and consulting services for pharmaceutical clients. 84 M a r c h 200 2 PharmaVOICE WHAT’S new Burrill forms DIAGNOSTICS CAPITAL FUND and has added an online market place for biopharmaceutical deal making Burrill & Co. and Bayer Diagnostics, through Bayer Innovation BmbH, have united to form the Burrill Diag nostics Capital Fund,a $50 million venture capital fund with an initial closing of $25 million. Additional funding is expected to be completed by June 2002. “We are honored and enormously pleased to have so venerable a partner as Bayer in this venture,” says G. Steven Burrill, CEO of Burrill & Co. a lifesciences merchant bank. “The diagnostics sector is an exciting market with opportunities for investment in the development of products that will aid not only in the diagnosis of dis ease, but also the monitoring of treatment.On the clinical development side, the use of diagnostic biomarkers also will help in efforts to personalize medicine and reduce drug develop ment costs by aiding in patient selection.” The Burrill Diagnostics Capital Fund will provide innovative diagnostic technology companies with resources to fully exploit the application of novel, biobased technologies and provide growth capital to productbased com panies. Genomics, proteomics, pharmacogenomics, functional genomics, and other technologies are enabling researchers to better understand disease function and thereby design more effective means for the diagnosis of dis ease and the monitoring of a given therapy’s success in treating the ailment. Such tools also provide the means for genotyping for disease susceptibility and for stratifying patient populations in clinical trials for drug approval. The market opportunities for these technologies include in vitro and in vivo diag nostics as well as the emerging field of diagnomics. The Burrill Diagnostics Fund is part of a family of life sciencefocused funds managed by Burrill.These include the Burrill Biotechnology Capital Fund (cap italized at $140 million), the Burrill Agbio Capital Fund (capitalized at $66 mil lion), the Burrill Agbio II Capital Fund (capitalized at $35 million), the Burrill Nutraceuticals Capital Fund (capitalized at $60 million), the Burrill Biomateri als/Bioprocess Capital Fund (currently capitalized at $15 million) and the Bur rill Life Sciences Capital Fund (in formation). Each fund has a focus within life sciences determined, in part, by its strategic limited partners. In another move designed to broaden its range of lifesciences partnering services, Burrill & Co. has announced the addition of BioStreet, an online mar ketplace for biopharmaceutical deal making, to its strategic partnering and spinout services. By acquiring the assets of the BioStreet business, Burrill combines its strong network of pro fessional relationships with BioStreet’s ability to showcase potential partners’ technologies and products in an efficient and powerful fashion using the Inte net. With the addition of BioStreet’s DealXchange Website to its own capabilities, Mike Ullman,managing direc tor who focuses on Burrill’s partnering and spinout business, says,“Burrill & Co.now offers pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies a winning combination that harnesses both electronic and facetoface dealmak ing acumen to get the right parties talking and get the right deal done.” McDermott,Will & Emery LAUNCHES HIPAA PRIVACY SOLUTION PROGRAM McDermott,Will & Emery’s international healthcare practice has launched HIPAA Privacy Solutions, a com prehensive implementation product designed to help businesses comply with the complex HIPAA privacy reg ulations issued by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Drawing on the firm’s 50year history of serving the healthcare industry, the product is offered in modules tailored for use in specific industry segments, including hospitals and health systems, physician and medical groups, research organizations, and academic medical centers. This cuttingedge legal product includes poli cies, forms, and contract language which, depending on the organization, may be implemented with minimal or no additional outside legal assistance. “Realizing the challenges that our clients face in preparing to meet the HIPAA compliance deadline, we developed a pragmatic and costeffective option that goes beyond standardized guidelines and checklists,” says Monte Dube, head of the firm’s health law department. “HIPAA Privacy Solutions offers clients a compre hensive resource that is protected by the attorneyclient privilege.” URAC to develop DISEASE MANAGEMENT STANDARDS As part of its mission to promote healthcare quality and accountability, URAC — the American Accreditation HealthCare Commission — is devel oping diseasemanagement program standards. During the development process,URAC will test the draft standards on three to four disease manage ment organizations. URAC, which expects to com plete the standards in April, is soliciting interested organizations and companies to participate in the betasite process. “Disease management is an important strategy for reaching out to chronically ill consumers to improve health outcomes,”says Garry Carneal, presi dent and CEO of URAC. “Our disease management standards will emphasize collaborative relationships between patients and providers, and encourage companies to adopt evidencebased best practices. The betatest process lets us apply the standards on a trial basis to ensure that we are meeting our objec tives for fair, rigorous standards that help establish industry best practices.” URAC’s disease management standards are being developed with guidance from a national advisory committee. Stakeholder participants include disease management organizations, providers, employers, and public organizations, as well as national organizations representing disease management and the healthcare industry. “Disease management holds tremendous promise as a strategy that can be used by HMOs, PPOs, or any other type of health care organization,” says Robert L. Crocker, M.D., senior VP and corporate medical director for WellPoint Health Networks Inc. and chairperson of the URAC Disease Management Advisory Committee. “Accreditation is the first step to assuring that dis ease management programs are credible and accountable for the services they provide. These standards address the basic capabilities of an organi zation, and establish guidelines for reporting on per formance,”says Dr. Crocker. The URAC disease management standards will incorporate URAC’s core standards for organization al quality, and will include additional standards spe cific to the management of chronic illness. Cate gories of standards include: . Disease management program scope and objectives . Administration and staffing of the disease management program . Information management and compliance . Quality management and performance reporting . Participant rights and responsibilities . Population management . Program design Times are changing. The biotech industry has never been more dependent on dealmaking for its success, but we need to reexamine just how those deals will get done. — Steven Burrill WHAT’S new 85 PharmaVOICE M a r c h 2 002 create an independent corporate unit. Bayer also plans to divest noncore businesses — the wholly owned subsidiary Haarmann & Reimer of Holzmin den, Germany, a manufacturer of fragrances and fla vors, and Rhein Chemie Rheinau of Mannheim, Ger many, a specialist in additives for the rubber, lubricants, and plastics industries as well as in polyurethane chemistry. On other issues, the company says following the agreement to acquire Aventis CropScience in early October, preparations for the new, legally indepen dent agrochemical company are proceeding at full speed. Subject to approval, the entire crop protec tion activities of Bayer and ACS will be combined into a new company named Bayer CropScience. In a move that gives it organizational position ing similar to that of its competitors, the animal health business group — currently part of Bayer’s agriculture segment — will transfer effective Jan. 1, 2002, to the healthcare segment, which also com prises the pharmaceuticals, diagnostics, biological products, and consumercare business groups. Bayer’s healthcare activities will be combined into a new Bayer healthcare company. According to Dr. Schneider, this step will increase the unit’s flexibility for strategic partnerships and thus additional growth. Based on this year’s figures, the healthcare company’s sales will exceed 11 billion euros ($US9.88 billion). Dr.Schneider stresses that the intention is to pre serve the Bayer Group’s unity and reaffirm its focus on entrepreneurial leadership. The new organiza tional structure is to enhance flexibility and sharpen Bayer’s competitive edge. “Let me make it quite clear that we are not opt ing for a financial holding structure,” Dr. Schneider says. “ There will continue to be structural ties between the operating companies.” BAYER AG,Leverkusen,Germany, is an international, researchbased group with core businesses in healthcare, agriculture, polymers,and specialty chemicals.For more information visit, bayerus.com. BAYER DIAGNOSTICS,Tarrytown,N.Y., is one of the largest diagnostic businesses in the world,and is part of Bayer AG.For more information,visit bayerdiag.com. BURRILL&CO.,San Francisco, is a life sciences merchant bank, focused on bio technology,pharmaceuticals,diagnostics, humanhealthcare,related medical technologies,agricultural,nutraceuticals, and biomaterials/bioprocesses.For more information,visit burrillandco.com. COMPUTER SCIENCES CORP.,El Segundo, Calif., provides integration and consulting services for systems installation and implementation,medical management, and supplychain redesign.For more infor mation,visit csc.com. DIRECTIONS RESEARCH INC., Cincinnati, is a fullservice research company.For more information,visit directionsrsch.com. DORLANDHEALTHCARE INFORMATION, Philadelphia, is an independent healthcare publisher. For more information, visit dor landhealth.com. INTRASPHERETECHNOLOGIES INC., NewYork,provides technology solutions to companies seeking to maximize their Internet, Intranet, and Extranet business space.For more information, visit intrasphere.com. MCDERMOTT,WILL & EMERY,Chicago, is an international law firm with more than 900 attorneys in 11 offices worldwide.For more information visit, mwe.com, for specific information regarding McDer mott,Will & Emery’s HIPAA Practice Group, for additional information on HIPAA Privacy Solutions, visit mwe.com/health/hipaa.htm. RIBOTSKYWORLDWIDE INC., Somerset, N.J., is a fullservice healthcare communications company.For more information, visit ribotsky.com. TRW INC., Reston,Va., provides advanced technology products and services for the aerospace, information systems,and automotive markets worldwide.For more information, visit trw.com. URAC,Washington D.C., offers accreditation programs for healthcare and managedcare organizations.For more information, visit urac.org or phone 2022169010. Follow up In a major realignment of its operations,Bayer AG plans to transform its current organizational struc ture into a management holding company with independent operating subsidiaries. Subject to stockholders’ approval, the new structure is to be operational effective Jan. 1, 2003. Plans were approved by the company’s supervisory board at its meeting on Dec.6, 2001. Following the decision made in September to transfer the healthcare segment and the crop pro tection business group into legally independent cor porate units within the Bayer Group,the same action is now to be taken for the polymers and chemicals business segments. Chairman Dr. Manfred Schneider says: “In line with our proven fourpillar strategy we are adjusting our organizational structure to increase maneuver ability in our markets, to improve our competitive ness, to better exploit synergies and to align our business for potential strategic partnerships.” Among the consolidation efforts, Bayer’s rubber, plastics, polyurethanes, as well as coatings and col orants business groups will be merged to create one of the world’s largest polymers companies.The com pany’s basic and fine chemicals as well as specialty products business groups will also be merged to Bayer to ESTABLISH MANAGEMENTHOLDINGCOMPANY with operating subsidiaries Intrasphere announces consulting service specializing in CLINICAL DATA MANAGEMENT Intrasphere Technologies,a provider of technolo gy consulting and application development to com panies in regulated industries,has established a con sulting service specializing in clinical data management. The company also announced two technology applications that will increase the effi ciency of collecting and managing clinical data. The two unique technology applications designed to increase the efficiency of collecting and managing clinical data are CRF Maker and Oracle Clinical Progress Monitor. CRF Maker enables trials to be initiated and completed more rapidly, by automating the process of creating first draft CRF pages and eliminating the need to design and pro duce them manually.Oracle Clinical Progress Monitor increases staff efficiency in using Oracle Clinical for clinical data management. The application eases access to data by way of a straightforward series of Webpage views that provide trial status information.
