USE OF DIGITAL SIGNATURES IN BIOPHARMACEUTICAL INDUSTRY INCREASED IN 2008 ACCORDING TO SAFE-BIOPHARMA ASSOCIATION

Fort Lee, N.J. (February 24, 2009) -- Identity management and use of digital signatures greatly streamlined biopharmaceutical operations in 2008 according to SAFE-BioPharma Association (www.safe-biopharma.org), the non-profit group responsible for the SAFE-BioPharma™ digital identity and signature standard used in the pharmaceutical and healthcare industries.

“More major biopharmaceutical companies than ever before incorporated the SAFE-BioPharma standard into their operations last year. They are determined to improve efficiency and reduce costs. We enter 2009 stronger and better equipped than any other time in the association’s history,” said Mollie Shields-Uehling, President and CEO, SAFE-BioPharma Association.

SAFE-BioPharma digital signatures are facilitating paperless transactions by being used to sign a variety of forms and contracts, including FDA submissions, electronic laboratory notebooks, and approvals.

The SAFE-BioPharma standard is being broadly used for identity management of employees and to manage the identities of external business and scientific collaborators.

Other 2008 SAFE-BioPharma Association developments include the following:

• Creation of the biopharmaceutical industry’s first and only link with the Federal Bridge PKI Certification Authority. This enables trusted transactions between SAFE-BioPharma member companies and key US government agencies, including the FDA, Health and Human Services, Department of Defense, Homeland Security and the US Patent and Trademark Office.
• Addition of a new, easy-to-use on-line identity proofing service which takes 15 – 20 minutes to obtain and activate a digital identity.
• Four new member organizations including Abbott and Eli Lilly. The association now has virtually every large biopharmaceutical company as members. Other new members are the National Notary Association and the Premier healthcare alliance of more than 2,100 U.S. hospitals and 54,000+ other healthcare sites working together to improve healthcare quality and affordability.
• Certification of eight products from the software and applications community, confirming that they comply with the SAFE-BioPharma standard. There now are  certified products from Adobe, Aladdin, ARX, MXI, Tricipher, and Xyzmo.

About SAFE-BioPharma Association
SAFE-BioPharma Association is the non-profit association that created and manages the SAFE-BioPharma™ digital identity and signature standard for the pharmaceutical and healthcare industries.

The SAFE-BioPharma industry standard is used to mitigate legal, regulatory and other business risk associated with business-to-business and business-to-regulator electronic transactions. It facilitates interoperability by providing a secure, enforceable, and regulatory-compliant way to verify identities of parties involved in electronic transactions. SAFE-BioPharma’s vision is to be a catalyst in transforming the biopharmaceutical and healthcare communities to a fully electronic business environment by 2012.

The Association’s members include:

• Abbott (NYSE: ABT)
• Amgen (NASDAQ: AMGN)
• AstraZeneca (NYSE: AZN)
• Bristol-Myers Squibb (NYSE:BMY)
• GlaxoSmithKline (NYSE: GSK)
• Johnson & Johnson (NYSE: JNJ)
• Eli Lilly (NYSE: LLY)
• Merck (NYSE:MRK)
• National Notary Association
• Organon (NYSE: SGP)
• Pfizer (NYSE: PFE)
• Premier Inc.
• Procter & Gamble (NYSE: PG)
• Roche
• Sanofi-Aventis (NYSE:SNY)

SAFE-BioPharma™ is a trademark of SAFE-BioPharma Association. Any use of this trademark requires approval from
SAFE-BioPharma Association.