"Strongly Recommended" and "Invaluable": PIM and TVT

The 22nd Annual DIA EuroMeeting

MONACO, March 18, 2010 - "To PIM or not to PIM?" That's not the question. PIM (Product Information
Management) will become the EMA-answer to long-standing, troublesome
questions about product information and consistency. To get the answer right
and ready as quickly as possible, a reliable text comparator like TVT (Text
Verification Tool) from Schlafender Hase will play a crucial role.

At the PIM session on March 10, certain things became clear. PIM will
become the standard for the future. During the Q&A session following the
presentations, the debate about whether PIM would become "mandatory" or
remain simply "strongly recommended" became a moot question. A high-ranking
EMA spokesman left no doubt about the intent behind "strongly recommended";
"strongly recommended" means that by the end of 2012 there will be no
alternative to PIM for Centrally Registered Products.

Lynsey Flitton, Senior Regulatory Labelling Manager, Pfizer, UK, also
made it clear that achieving full implemation of PIM by the end of 2012 would
be no easy task. In her presentation of "Practical Experiences of Migrations"
during the pilot phase, she stressed how time-consuming the migration process
was and how important it is to check the quality of all documents to be
migrated. To date, she has worked on two products. In the first case she did
not use a text verification tool, in the second case she did. Her
recommendation to use a text verification tool could not be stronger: A tool
such as TVT is simply "invaluable."

Willie Schnaubelt, Managing Director at Schlafender Hase, put it another
way: "TVT is already PIM ready and can play a key role in getting the entire
industry PIM ready."

    For more Information contact:
    Willie Schnaubelt
    +49-69-2444-8112
    or
    Carsten Holinski
    +49-69-2444-8115

For more Information contact: Willie Schnaubelt, +49-69-2444-8112, or Carsten Holinski, +49-69-2444-8115