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Strategic Partners
Each of the firms that partner with SSI is among the most highly regarded in their respective areas. Technical staffs from SSI and our strategic partner in the pharmaceutical industry, CardinalHealth, have combined as a team and have worked closely with the outside technical sources toward the completion of development and implementation of the production model for SSI’s technology system. The combination of SSI’s technical capability along with that of its production system partners creates a virtual company with expertise across multiple disciplines far in excess of what could be achieved by any one of them.
Each of the partners has made significant investments of resources, specifically senior level management and technical personnel, all of whom are committing a high level of time and energy.
CardinalHealth
CardinalHealth has a division which is the largest outsourcer of pharmaceutical packaging, with its biggest facility, of approximately 500,000 square feet, dedicated to this operation. The division employs a large, world class staff of engineers and technicians, and boasts extensive experience and know-how in all facets of pharmaceutical packaging production. These capabilities, along with an energetic, creative and cooperative in-house team assigned to work with SSI, have facilitated the design, testing, and validation of SSI’s technology to meet the requirements in both a high-volume and FDA-regulated production mode.
Besides enabling the division to provide for its pharmaceutical customers the addition of SSI serialized codes to unit-level packages, the operations will represent a valuable “showcase” that pharmaceutical manufacturers can visit and the division will act to facilitate their adoption of SSI's technology if desired.
Inc.Jet
Inc.Jet is a digital imaging company that provides ink jet printer hardware and software capable of high speed, high resolution printing.
Inc.Jet’s technology consists of an industrial printer embedded with software for ink jet printing. The printer uses HP print cartridges and special ink, designed for the appropriate print material.
The software contained inside the print-head allows packaging line computer systems to control the printer and perform sophisticated print operations.
Inc.Jet provides the most elegant, powerful, “plug and play” line printing technology on the market. Inc.Jet’s engineers work closely with SSI to ensure smooth integration and optimal printing.
Inc.Jet’s software “plugs in” to SSI’s software architecture, enabling the SSI system to print serialized bar codes at high rates.
Cognex
Cognex is the leading provider of machine vision systems, with over $200 million in revenue. Cognex provides camera hardware and vision software for detecting, decoding, and grading printed objects.
Cognex offers a very wide range of cameras and software for use in any number of industries and environments. Cognex focuses on developing compact, powerful vision systems, with interoperability as a priority.
Cognex vision engineers work with SSI’s engineers to fine-tune the vision functionality, and provide software updates and new features as required by SSI.
The camera systems SSI uses are small, self-contained vision systems that attach to the side of a conveyor. SSI uses the cameras with embedded software for decoding and grading of serialized bar codes. Cognex cameras contain computer chips that “plug in” to SSI’s software architecture, enabling the verify component of Print & Verify.
Luciano Packaging Technologies
Luciano Packaging Technologies (LPT) is an engineering and manufacturing company in the packaging industry. LPT designs, builds, and integrates packaging line systems in various industries, including pharmaceuticals.
LPT has very deep knowledge of all engineering aspects of packaging lines, from general mechanical engineering to electrical and software engineering. Its experience with different printing and vision systems is invaluable to SSI as it adapts to different industries.
LPT provides SSI with prototyping and testing facilities, as well as general packaging technology consulting. It is able to run-high volume package printing and vision tests in parallel to SSI’s core software development. This provides SSI with a virtual R&D lab, using highly experienced packaging industry engineers. LPT has a 15,000-square-foot production facility in Somerville, New Jersey, with the availability of an additional 10,000-square-foot facility, and has the capability of providing both mass produced and customized SSI ESC™ solutions for any industry and any packaging problem likely to be encountered. In order to further optimize the production of the ESC™ equipment, SSI will make an investment in LPT to will be used for both additional personnel and shop redesign, increasing the production throughput initially to 200 machines a year.
Integrated Project Services
Integrated Project Services (IPS) is a validation and compliance company that is experienced in validating pharmaceutical technology. IPS is employed extensively by pharmaceutical companies to audit computer systems and ensure that such systems meet the very tight standards of the FDA.
IPS is also used by software companies such as SSI to create validation packages that can be sold along with an entire system. These packages detail how the system has been tested to ensure that it meets FDA requirements.
SSI works with IPS at the highest levels to ensure that SSI will pass any and all possible audits of its system. IPS provides full validation, including Factory Acceptance Testing and Site Acceptance Testing, for SSI’s system for use in pharmaceutical environments.
Qwest Communications
Qwest Communications is a telecommunications company that manages robust, secure, high-bandwidth data centers. Qwest hosts some of the nation’s biggest and most secure Websites. Each data center is connected directly to Qwest’s backbone, allowing for fast and efficient data communications.
Qwest’s expertise is in web server technology, network engineering, and physical security. Its Sterling, Virginia, data center is located within two miles of SSI’s Technology Center. This gives SSI a uniquely close relationship with Qwest’s engineers and support staff.
Qwest hosts SSI’s Track and Trace™ data warehouse and provides all associated security and engineering services required to maintain SSI as a 24x7, secure, scalable system.
CardinalHealth PILOT Project
Importantly, to facilitate and maximize its opportunity in pharmaceuticals, SSI has in place a strategic partnership with a Fortune 100 company, CardinalHealth, which has a division positioned as the largest outsource provider of pharmaceutical packaging services. CardinalHealth has done business with virtually all the large pharmaceutical companies globally and, accordingly, will lead the selling and marketing effort. This business arrangement originated at CardinalHealth’s corporate level, which has a strategic commitment to becoming the leader in pharmaceutical brand security solutions.
CardinalHealth believes that SSI’s system and RFID represent highly complementary technologies and, consequently, has adopted each as part of a two-prong approach to the brand security issue in the pharmaceutical marketplace. As a result, CardinalHealth has authorized two pilot projects—SSI's barcoding solution, which has already essentially been completed, and an RFID solution. The results of SSI's pilot test were outstanding, meeting virtually all of CardinalHealth's requirements, exhibiting speeds of just under 200 packages printed per minute with a 99.34% average pass rate. The implementation of SSI’s technology into production mode has proved much easier than implementing RFID, because the design of the “crash cart” allows it to adapt to existing production requirements regardless of product unit size.
Both parties to the partnership agree that SSI’s system is the most immediate and practical solution to allow pharmaceutical companies to comply with current regulatory mandates. Existing scanners at all pharmaceutical dispensing locations will be able to read SSI's bar codes, circumventing the RFID future requirement “problem” of creating a reader capability across the broad point-of-sale spectrum. Further, SSI’s solution is adaptable to all pharmaceutical products, including the important area of biologics; the FDA will not endorse RFID for biologics until further work can be done to ensure that the radio wave transmission does not create a potential hazard. The SSI solution does not have this problem with biologics, which represent a significant portion of high value drugs that are often counterfeited. In addition, the SSI system is viewed both as a stand-alone solution, a pre-cursor to RFID, and ultimately a back-up to RFID in the possible event of chip failure or hacking.
The existing extreme regulatory pressures on the pharmaceutical industry, along with a committed strategic partner with major ties to the industry, offers a powerful combining force behind SSI’s confidence that it will achieve rapid penetration of this market. Thanks to CardinalHealth's premarketing efforts, the company has had the opportunity to present its equipment to a significant number of major pharmaceutical companies. Among them are Pfizer, Merck, Novo, Nordisk, Abbott, GlaxoSmith Kline, Lilly and Bristol-Meyers.
In addition to its substantial strategic partner, SSI also has a significant and evolving partnership with Luciano Packaging Technologies (LPT), the preeminent knowledge-based packaging solutions company. LPT has worked closely with the company to design, specify, and assemble the hardware for the SSI unit. LPT has among its past and current client base every major pharmaceutical, cosmetic, and retail companies. Established in 1972, LPT has the long-proven experience to provide a design and customization element to the SSI™ system.
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