March 14 , 2019
PHC Holdings Corporation
TOKYO, March 14, 2019 - PHC Corporation (hereafter PHC), a wholly-owned subsidiary of PHC Holdings Corporation (headquarters: Minato-ku, Tokyo, Japan, hereafter PHCHD), announces signing a basic agreement with Alfresa Corporation (headquarters: Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo, Japan, hereafter Alfresa) and Fujitsu FIP Corporation (headquarters: Minato-ku, Tokyo, Japan, hereafter Fujitsu FIP) to build a new platform for specialty drugs (*1) distribution management utilizing IoT technology such as RFID (*2) and cloud services.
The GDP guidelines issued by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare in December 2018 require promoting high-level and uniform distribution operation including stricter temperature controls and measures to prevent fake medical products. In addition, advanced treatment such as specialty pharmaceutical products and regenerative medicine has been introduced, requiring stricter quality assurance and information management.
Based on this agreement, the three companies PHC, Alfresa and Fujitsu FIP aim to deliver new solution services for seamlessly managing specialty drugs distribution channels from pharmaceutical companies to dosing for patients to cope with the above-mentioned environmental changes. The three companies will proceed with considering to build a platform that enables delivering safe and trusted specialty drugs for patients by integrating (1) Alfresa’s distribution networks in wholesaling such as ethical pharmaceutical products, (2) various cloud services taking advantage of Fujitsu FIP’s achievements in systems development for the pharmaceutical industry, and (3) the strengths of PHC featuring high quality and market share of life sciences devices such as pharmaceutical refrigerators, and also by making use of the accumulated experience and knowledge of the three companies.
[Conceptual Chart]
PHCHD is a global healthcare company that offers value-added products and services in the fields of diabetes care, diagnostics, life sciences and healthcare IT. The agreement concluded this time will lead to enhancing the value of existing products in the PHC life sciences business and also to provide new services.
The life science business now with its new brand name “PHCbi” following the company name change in April 2018 goes back to 1966 when the company launched pharmaceutical refrigerators in Japan. The products featuring high technology and quality now account for the No.1 share (*3) in the Japanese market.
Nobuaki Nakamura, Director of PHC Biomedical Division said, “The agreement is to examine possibilities which will contribute to greater precision in distribution management for pharmaceutical products by adding IoT technology to our hardware products including pharmaceutical refrigerators. As new fields of life sciences research for cell therapies and others make progress, PHCHD will pay close attention to the needs of healthcare professionals and researchers and endeavor to offer cutting-edge products and services that meet the challenges.”
(*1) Pharmaceutical products that require strict temperature and quality controls, or for very limited number of patients.
(*2) Technology to exchange information through RF tags embedded with ID information by short-range (depending on frequency band from several centimeters to a few meters) radio communication using electromagnetic field and radio waves.
(*3) Source: "Latest Trends and Future Prospects in Tissue Engineering Markets 2018" by Fuji Keizai Co., Ltd. (based on the 2017 actual achievements)
About PHC Holdings Corporation
Incorporated in 2014, PHC Holdings Corporation is a global healthcare company. Its subsidiaries include PHC Corporation and Ascensia Diabetes Care Holdings AG. Committed to its corporate mission, “We contribute to the wellbeing of society through our diligent efforts by creating new value propositions for all the people who wish for better health,” the company develops, manufactures, sells and services medical equipment and solutions across diabetes care, diagnosis, life sciences and healthcare IT. PHC Holdings Corporation group’s consolidated net sales in FY2017 was 192.6 billion yen with global distribution of products and services for more than 125 countries. PHC Holdings Corporation changed its name from Panasonic Healthcare Holdings Co., Ltd. in April, 2018.
For further information on PHC Holdings Corporation, please visit
www.phchd.com
About Alfresa Corporation
Alfresa Corporation has a social mission to deliver pharmaceutical products and others to its customers and patients wherever and whenever needed in any quantity, “safely and with trust and high quality.” Its sales network covers the Kanto, Kansai and Tokai regions, the Koushin’etsu region (Yamanashi, Nagano and Niigata prefectures), Kyushu with a full product line-up handling virtually every domestic and overseas manufacturer for pharmaceutical products, diagnostic reagents and medical devices. Alfresa Corporation, supported by its “best quality control and safe and trusted delivery system” and by “providing precise information” is making efforts to address diverse needs of customers and patients rapidly and flexibly.
For further information on Alfresa Corporation, please visit
www.alfresa.co.jp
About Fujitsu FIP Corporation
Fujitsu FIP Corporation was founded in 1977. The business started from calculation and software development, and expanded to EDI (*4) and system integration and further to outsourcing based on its data center, SaaS (*5), and cloud services always meeting the needs of the times. Now, Fujitsu FIP Corporation offers safe, trusted, high quality, and high-cost-performance ICT services for municipalities and various sectors such as distribution companies. The company, having advanced hand in hand with its customers over many years, also provides life sciences and healthcare industries with various solutions, especially industry-specified EDI services for drug wholesalers as well as pharmaceutical products safety management solutions for pharmaceutical manufacturers, holding the No.1 shares for both sectors.
www.fujitsu.com/jp/fip
(*4) Structure to standardize information formats on commercial transactions and transfer them electronically between companies.
(*5) Services form to deliver application functions via networks.
Media contact
Corporate Communications Group
PHC Holdings Corporation
+81-3-6778-5311