BOSTON and CAPE TOWN, South Africa, Feb. 1, 2006 -- Clinical Technology Advisors, Inc. (CTA), a provider of innovative medication adherence and patient compliance solutions, and SIMpill (Pty) Ltd., a leader in wireless medication compliance technologies, have entered into an exclusive distribution agreement. The agreement allows CTA to offer the SIMpill(R) medication adherence system to the North American market, effective immediately. CTA's initial focus will be the deployment of the system in the clinical trials and disease management environments.
SIMpill is a patent-pending system that tracks, manages, and improves a patient's medication adherence in real-time. This low-cost and potentially lifesaving reminder device has had success in South Africa with patients self-managing HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis medications. CTA will continue to introduce the system to clinical trials and disease management sponsors across all chronic medical conditions.
The system consists of a durable, tamperproof pill bottle attached to a SIMpill module containing the components of a wireless quad-band GSM/GPRS cell phone. The module is programmed with multiple time windows based upon the dosing schedule of the drug. When the patient opens the bottle, the module automatically sends an SMS message to a central computer system indicating that a dose has been taken. If the SMS message is not received within the first programmed time window, an outgoing text message is sent to the patient's cell phone (and/or e-mail) reminding him or her to take their medication. If the bottle is not opened within the next programmed time window, a text message can be sent to a designated caregiver or researcher, who can then contact the patient by some other means. In addition, as SMS events are captured, approved healthcare managers can track the patients' medication adherence in real-time using SIMpill's proprietary web-based reporting tool.
"Existing research overwhelmingly supports that patient medication adherence is a problem that runs deep from clinical trials through marketed drugs," said David Rosa, President of Clinical Technology Advisors. "With this exclusive agreement in place, we are able to provide the fastest and most cost-effective medication adherence solution to all of North America. We believe now more than ever that SIMpill is the ideal way to track and influence medication adherence."
"We are very excited to have the resources that CTA brings to our overall strategy to be the leader in producing the most innovative medication compliance devices to address this crucial issue," added Dr. David Green, Managing Director of SIMpill (Pty) Ltd. "During 2005, thousands of SIMpill(R) modules were successfully used in South Africa as the primary solution to monitor and improve medication compliance in severe diseases such as HIV infection and tuberculosis. I am confident that SIMpill(R) will add another level of scientific rigor to clinical research programs in North America as well."
The SIMpill(R) system is now available to clinical research managers for a hands-on evaluation.
About Clinical Technology Advisors:
Clinical Technology Advisors (http://www.clintechadvisors.com) is a Boston-based company that provides pharmaceutical companies and disease management organizations with fast, accurate, and cost-effective technology solutions to improve patient compliance and medication adherence.
About SIMpill (Pty) Ltd.:
SIMpill (http://www.simpill.com) is a leader in providing innovative, proven, affordable and usable solutions to enable health organizations to be more efficient and effective. Its primary focus is the use of wireless technologies to support patients with chronic conditions to take their medication as prescribed.
MEDIA CONTACT:
Paul Molinari Vice President of Marketing Clinical Technology Advisors, Inc. Phone: (978) 501-4869 E-mail: paul@clintechadvisors.com
