Aegate News

Aegate joins forces with Domino on Drug Authentication

Aegate joins forces with Domino on Drug Authentication
Strategic collaboration provides extra layer of security to increase patient safety in the pharmaceutical industry

London, November 20 - Aegate, the pharmaceutical authentication company, is collaborating with Domino Printing Sciences Plc to enhance its innovative patient safety service and offer printing and management of data solutions to pharmaceutical companies worldwide. The collaboration between the two companies will further enhance the service and support that Aegate can provide pharmaceutical companies, which enables pharmacists to authenticate medicines at the point of dispense.

Domino has a long and successful history in the pharmaceutical industry, providing a range of coding solutions which ensure security and traceability throughout the supply chain. Earlier this year, Domino announced the acquisition of Control, a data management specialist with vast experience in working with large pharmaceutical organisations. The acquisition makes up a key part of Domino's organisation - and its new collaboration with Aegate - as it will provide further service to support pharmaceutical companies in the implementation of mass serialisation.

Tony Walsh, Global Head of Pharma Domino IS Group, said: "Authentication at the point of dispense is an excellent step forward for the pharmaceutical industry. We are delighted to be supporting such an innovative company in helping to improve patient safety across the industry."

"Up until now the current marketplace has faced a number of challenges which have prevented organisations from getting involved. With 2-D bar-coding it makes the proposition much simpler and enables pharmaceutical companies to easily mark their products, ensuring authentication and quick retrieval of sub standard medicines before they ever reach the patient."

To ensure patient safety is not compromised, Aegate now works with leading pharmaceutical companies and associations worldwide towards this common goal by providing authentication at the point of dispensing™ - widely acknowledged as the best practice solution. The Aegate service works by providing a direct, two-way communications network which links the pharmaceutical manufacturer and the pharmacist. This network acts as a protective mechanism by providing patient safety messages direct to pharmacists at the time when they are interacting with the product. This additional layer of security also supports pharmacists by providing additional information to aid dispensing decisions and helps then to manage critical issues such as counterfeit and stolen medicines, but also out-of-date notification and product recalls.

Last year, Aegate awarded a secure hosting contract to QinetiQ, a company with a long and successful history in protecting sensitive information on behalf of UK Government departments and agencies which depend on large scale secure networks and systems. This contract ensures sensitive information, generated as part of the authentication process, is kept secure and confidential.

Peter Roger, Managing Director of QinetiQ's IT Security business, said: "QinetiQ was selected to support Aegate's groundbreaking drug authentication system. The security of the system is key to maintaining patient and industry confidence and, ultimately, delivering improved patient safety. We work alongside Aegate and their customers to ensure the system is a success and are proud to be working with such an innovative company"

Gary Noon, CEO of Aegate, said: "We recognise that the fight towards ensuring patient safety relies on collaboration within the industry and Aegate works with a raft of strategic partners to meet these goals and deliver its unique service across Europe. We look forward to our new partnership with Domino."

All of Domino's solutions are fully compliant with the FDA, EU and other regulatory bodies' requirements, and the company works closely with EFPIA - the representative voice of the European pharmaceutical industry - on the recommendation of 2-D data matrix bar coding in Europe.