US-based InfoPro Solutions Inc, a mission-critical information systems provider for the drug development markets worldwide, has for the first time entered the Indian market with 'Clinicopia', a clinical trials supplies management suite. The company is also exploring a potential business opportunity to set-up a drugs accountability support centre at later stage in Bangalore for which pharmacists would be hired to handle clinical research associates at clinical trails sites in the US and Europe.

The main objective is to provide complete solutions to clients in the area of clinical trials data management where drugs will be tracked during distribution, allocation and those not administered for patient consumption. "We are in a discussion with clients in US and Europe who are looking at outsourcing drug accountability service. InfoPro stands to gain because one of Clinicopia product's is for drug accountability. Our plans for the drugs accountability support centre is too early to discuss as our task on hand is to go aggressive in India with Clinicopia suite, Kunal Khattar, associate director, corporate strategy and marketing InfoPro Solutions Inc told Pharmabiz.com over phone.

As a first step to enter India, the company's already existing development centre in Bangalore, which was responsible for the development Clinicopia, has now become the headquarters for the Asia Pacific region for the global development and quality assurance testing. The Asia Pacific region facility is coming up in two phases on a two acre land in Whitefield in the outskirts of Bangalore at an investment of around $ 700,000. The 18,000 sq.ft. building will be ready in August 2003 for 200 employees. A senior project manager is hired to head software development, quality assurance, testing and configuration management.

With the Indian pharma-biotech sector moving up the value chain-from generics to R&D, Clinicopia could help to meet the specific needs of drug development in the pre-clinical and clinical trial space where companies in sample management and assay management could benefit. "Our marketing communications have commenced in India with the top pharma-biotech companies. It is still premature to set sales targets here as we are trying to create a brand and to understand the requirements between Indian and US/European companies," he informed.

Clinicopia, the world's first purpose-built industry specific suite consists of 5 applications that can be bought separately or together. The pricing which Khattar declined to disclose is based on the number of concurrent users. Further implementing costs are dependent on the scope of the customization and the number of sites and the training costs are also dependent on the number of users, he said.

The unique features of the suite are its graphical fit-design capability, ability to handle triple blinded kits, backward and forward genealogy, interface to contractors and IVR systems and GMP/GCP, ZI CFR Part 2 Compliant.

As regards competition for Clinicopia, Khattar informed that there are generic ERP/SCM systems like SAP and the People Soft, which need considerable customization and would still be short on features and functions. "There are few supply chain systems like Propack Data and Honeywell POMS which have been developed for commercial manufacturing of mass drugs after FDA approval. These need customization which is expensive and time consuming to meet the requirements of working in the clinical trials environment," he added.

Info Pro has four offices world wide: two in US (Los Angles and Boston), Europe (Belgium) and India (Bangalore). It has strategic level partnerships Microsoft, Oracle, Zebra, Symbol and Clinphore. Its marketing and sales department focuses on customer acquisition, publicity, branding and business development, etc. Clinicopia is successful in US and the Europe markets.

Some of the customers are Pfizer, Abbott, Amgen, Procter and Gamble, and Chiron using the system for global clinical supplies.

In 2001-2002 the company's earnings amounted to $ 4.5 million (Rs 22 crore). "Now we are targeting $ 7.5 million (Rs 37 crore) for 2002-2003 and US $ 11.5 million (Rs 57 crore) for 2003-2004. InfoPro Solutions is confident of closing the current financial year (FY) ending May 31 on a turnover of $7.5 million. The future is promising as Clinicopia is fast gaining acceptance in the industry and for the next FY the sales forecast is in excess of $ 10million, said Khattar.

There are around 200 potential customers for Clinicopia world wide. "Initially we are selling to the larger ones who have the capabilities to implement and support the application in-house. In the next phase, we would be targeting virtual companies that use the services of external contractors for the manufacturing and distribution of the drugs. Finally we would explore the ASP model for the smaller companies. Each of these offerings would be different from a pricing perspective to assess market size world wide or in India," he informed.