Breakthrough Solution Can Stave Off Penalties, Fines and Unfavorable Publicity Associated with Marketing and Advertising Expenses
BEDMINSTER, N.J.--Cegedim Dendrite has launched the next generation of its State Guardian™ product, which helps U.S. pharmaceutical companies comply with the increasing number of state regulations governing expenses for sales promotion, marketing and advertising. Currently, six states have passed disclosure requirements for promotional spending, and 12 others have legislation pending.
State Guardian compiles and prepares the reports that are mandated at the state level, leveraging Cegedim Dendrite’s vast experience with pharmaceutical sales and marketing operations data and relying on its expansive regulatory knowledge through BuzzeoPDMA’s heritage.
“To be compliant in this area, companies must understand state regulations and also must know how to integrate data,” says Bill Buzzeo, vice president and general manager, Cegedim Dendrite’s Compliance Solutions business. “That’s what our State Guardian product offers.”
Without State Guardian, which is the first commercially available product of its kind, pharmaceutical companies must intimately know the reporting requirements for each state using internal or outsourced resources and then to integrate the required data from disparate systems across the business to produce complex reports.
”Our ability to interpret the complexity of state reporting requirements, coupled with our ability to streamline the collection, management and reporting of promotional spending at the state level, enables pharmaceutical companies to avoid potential penalties, fines and unfavorable publicity,” says Subhash Vaid, vice president, global product development, Cegedim Dendrite.
With packages available for large, mid-tier and small life sciences companies, State Guardian is completely scalable, so its capabilities will increase as a client grows. For instance, it allows “what-if” scenarios to plan and prepare for those states that will begin requiring compliance reporting. The most robust version allows large pharmaceutical companies to fully customize State Guardian and integrate it with their existing enterprise applications.
As proof of State Guardian’s robustness, scalability and ease-of-use, a leading life sciences company recently signed on as a new customer and will be operational in late 2007.
Clients of State Guardian also benefit from its synergy with State Monitor™, Cegedim Dendrite’s compliance product that provides detailed state-by-state monitoring and notification of changes in each state’s legislation and regulations.
“Through State Monitor we are constantly researching and updating anything that’s relevant to state gift laws in particular,” Buzzeo says. “Any time there is new state legislation, or if a modification occurs, that information is entered into State Guardian.”
State Guardian is one of five solutions that constitute Cegedim Dendrite’s State Services group of products and consulting services. Besides State Monitor, the others are State Licensing, a specialized outsourced service for acquiring and renewing state licenses for manufacturing, distribution, and sales of pharmaceuticals and medical devices; Custom State Research, which offers special research expertise in addition to the standardized service; and VAWD Consulting and Auditing Services, experts in assisting companies gain Verified-Accredited Wholesale Distribution accreditation, necessary for conducting business in states that require it.
About Cegedim Dendrite:
Cegedim Dendrite provides the pharmaceutical companies around the world with vital support for successful Customer Relationship Management (CRM) activities. With nearly 200,000 sales representatives using its products worldwide, Cegedim Dendrite is the world’s leading CRM provider for the life sciences industry. This business unit, created in May 2007 when the France-based CEGEDIM S.A. Group acquired Dendrite International, also provides sales, marketing and regulatory compliance solutions in more than 75 countries. To learn more, please see our website: www.cegedimdendrite.com.
About CEGEDIM:
CEGEDIM develops exclusive databases and high value added software solutions since 1969. Established as the world’s leading CRM provider for the life sciences industry with its Cegedim Dendrite Business Unit, CEGEDIM provides the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies with vital support for successful CRM (Customer Relationship Management). CEGEDIM Strategic Data and CEGEDIM Customer Information business units are also dedicated to pharmaceutical companies and help them measure sales & marketing effectiveness thanks to the Group's strategic databases focused on the world drug market.
These expertises fall into the “Healthcare and strategic data” division of the CEGEDIM Group which comprises the above services specifically designed for pharmaceutical companies, together with specific solutions dedicated to healthcare professionals (notably physicians and pharmacists in Europe) and health insurance providers. The “Technologies and services” division, mainly French oriented, capitalizes on the above skills to provide specific complementary solutions to clients of various sectors.
CEGEDIM generated turnover of €541 million in 2006. Including Dendrite, the combined Group generates €877 million revenue on a 2006 full year basis with a workforce of 7,500 and operations over more than 75 countries. To learn more, please see our website: www.cegedim.com.
