GAITHERSBURG,
MD—November 17, 2003— Health
Pathways, Inc. announced that it has
formed the Health Pathways Audit Services™ division.
The Health Pathways Audit Services
division will assist the distribution
channel in assuring medical product
distribution system integrity and product
safety. The Audit Services division
will perform annual third party distribution
system audits to verify compliance
with federal and state regulations
and the implementation of the Recommended
Guidelines for Pharmaceutical Distribution
System Integrity recently approved
by HDMA to respond to growing threats
to patient safety from counterfeited
pharmaceutical products.
Health Pathways will perform audit
services for the U.S. Pharmaceutical
Distribution System with the majority
of the customer base initially being
the progressive Pharmaceutical manufacturers
and Biotech companies acting responsibly
to assure patient safety from this
growing counterfeit threat.
As Mark McClellan, M.D., the Food
and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner,
recently stated during a video conference
with attendees at the Healthcare Distribution
Management Association (HDMA) annual
meeting, “The number of discovered
counterfeit drugs in the U.S. has increased
four fold in the last decade. The counterfeiters
are getting smarter and more sophisticated.”
Dr. McClellan further stated, “I
applaud the HDMA members for adopting
Guidelines to insure patient safety
by setting standards for which all
will need to comply”.
The Health Pathways Audit Services
procedures combine the “best
in breed” audit procedures from
six industries with the specificity
from within the Healthcare industry.
The audit teams, configured with five
disciplines, will perform their duties
in a supportive role for the distribution
system to identify ways that counterfeits
may be penetrating the distribution
system and to close those gaps.
“Health Pathways’ objective
is to support the industry’s
implementation of the recently adopted
HDMA Recommended Guidelines for Pharmaceutical
Distribution System Integrity to curtail
the introduction of counterfeits into
our distribution system and thereby
reduce the patient safety risk of such
counterfeit products and sustain the
viability of the current distribution
system for healthcare products in the
United States” said J. Randall
Hoggle, President/CEO of Health Pathways,
Inc. “The feedback from the pharmaceutical
manufacturers and biotech companies
on our decision to add this service
division and corresponding audit procedures
is very strong. With a knowledgeable
independent third party performing
consistent non-biased assessments of
these guidelines, the industry is taking
a major step to authenticate all distribution
sources in the legitimate U.S. pharmaceutical
distribution system.”
Health Pathways welcomes all pharmaceutical
manufacturers and biotech companies
to attend introductory sessions on
the audit procedures and processes.
During these sessions the Health Pathways
Audit Services team will be reviewing
the beta site test procedures findings.
These introductory sessions will be
held on Tuesday, December 2, 2003 at
the Health Pathways headquarters in
Gaithersburg, Maryland and Tuesday,
December 9, 2003 in a Trenton, New
Jersey location.
About Health Pathways, Inc.
Health Pathways, Inc.™ is a
U.S. based privately held Healthcare
Services and Products Holding Company
headquartered in Gaithersburg, Maryland.
Health Pathways focuses on "Accelerating
Healthcare Innovation" through
a series of five divisions. Health
Pathways Investment Group provides
working capital for promising technologies
and services start-ups. The NetHealth
Trust™ division provides workflow
process improvement and business automation
for government and commercial customers.
The MedSolution Networks division provides
Medical Imaging Management services
for clinical trials to accelerate the
determination of clinical trial eligibility
and exchange of medical imaging information.
biosciences Corporation® division
provides business advisory and medical
product development expertise for biotech
companies and investors. Health Pathways
Audit Services™ division assists
the distribution channel in assuring
medical product distribution system
integrity and product safety.
# # #
Contact:
Mathias Neumann
Health Pathways, Inc.
101 Orchard Ridge Drive
Suite 1N
Gaithersburg, Maryland 20878
(301) 216-3912, ext. 222
mneumann@healthpathways.com
|
