McKesson Joins Forces With Cyclone And Axway To Ensure A Safe And Secure Supply Chain

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. and PARIS - Cyclone Commerce and Axway, which are currently integrating operations following their January merger, today announced, in conjunction with McKesson Corporation (NYSE:MCK), a cost effective and real-world approach for supply chain safety and security. This relationship will be the catalyst for new and emerging technologies for both regulatory compliance and inventory management for the pharmaceutical supply chain.

"As a leading drug distributor, we are in direct contact with each point of the supply chain, and are therefore extremely invested in its safety," said Kim Loughead, director of emerging technologies at McKesson. "Our expanded relationship with Axway is designed to address the industry's need to safeguard patients and drive costs out of the supply chain."

Prior to its merger with Axway, Cyclone Commerce first enlisted McKesson's industry expertise in developing the Cyclone ePedigree product — an electronic tracking system for manufacturers, distributors, retailers and healthcare providers — when the Federal Drug Administration (FDA) outlined expectations for radio-frequency identification (RFID) to be used widely as part of an electronic pedigree system by 2007. Axway has since been working to meet the industry's needs for a longer-term strategy around serialization, product authentication and track and trace — while delivering ePedigree as a real approach for commercial supply chains today. As regulatory requirements evolve, supply chain players will benefit from operational improvements, such as increased service levels, improved in-stock rates and shorter order-to-cash cycles.

In the 2004 report "Combating Counterfeit Drugs: A Report of the Food and Drug Administration" the FDA stated, "Because the capabilities of counterfeiters continue to evolve rapidly, there is no single 'magic bullet' technology that provides any long-term assurance of drug security. However, a combination of rapidly improving 'track and trace' technologies and product authentication technologies should provide a much greater level of security for drug products in the years ahead."

"Our partnership with McKesson brings together the best of both worlds — healthcare industry leadership coupled with technology leadership," said Ron Gabrisko, vice president of health & life sciences at Cyclone Commerce. "We look forward to continuing our work with McKesson in extending track and trace technologies to improve the safety and security of the healthcare supply chain."

About Axway

Axway is the Business Interaction Networks company — the only provider in the market today to manage, run, secure, and monitor all of your business interactions, including email, files, messaging, services, events, and processes. Serving over 11,000 organizations in more than 100 countries, Axway facilitates the multi-enterprise transactions, processes and integration that accelerate business by eliminating the barriers between vendors, customers, departments, partners and suppliers. Axway's comprehensive offerings include business-to-business integration, managed file transfer, secure email, business activity monitoring, enterprise application integration, service-oriented architecture, business process management, track & trace and identity validation solutions. Axway provides professional and managed services, as well as cloud computing and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) offerings. Headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona, Axway's global presence spans 20 countries.