MWV buys medication monitoring firm

- MWV adds MEMS cap to portfolio

- Management remain; 12 staff join MWV

 
Global packaging and packaging systems provider MeadWestvaco (MWV) has expanded its position in adherence packaging with the acquisition of Aardex Group, a pioneer in the design and use of electronic medication event monitoring systems and applications designed to measure, analyze, and manage patient adherence in clinical drug trials.
 
Aardex Group is led by scientists Dr Bernard Vrijens and Dr John Urquhart, who pioneered electronic medication event monitoring that uses a small microcircuit integrated into the drug package to record the time and date of each opening of the package.
 
This technology has been employed in over 500 clinical research studies conducted by leading universities, public and private research organizations, and numerous research-based pharmaceutical companies.
 
Aardex Group's work has resulted in the publication of more than 550 research papers in peer-reviewed journals and as well as a vast knowledge base of patient adherence histories.
 
More than 500,000 trial participants have used Aardex Group's products in such studies.
 

MWV grows portfolio

With the acquisition of Aardex Group, MWV adds the medication event monitoring systems (MEMS) cap for bottles to its portfolio of adherence-enhancing package designs that currently includes Cerepak, Helping Hand, Dosepak, Dosepak Express, Med-Easy and Shellpak solid oral dose solutions.
 
These packaging solutions have had a positive effect on patient adherence in clinical trials and commercial settings by eliminating double-dosing or omission of dosing, MWV said.

Business continuity

The Aardex Group management team will remain in place and the team of 12 employees will become MWV employees.
 
Vrijens will serve as managing director of Aardex and will engage more broadly with pharmaceutical customers and prospects around adherence strategies in drug development and lifecycle management.
 
Urquhart will continue to work in the new organization as senior scientific advisor.
 
Bruce Thomas, president of MWV Healthcare and the company’s senior vice president of global innovation, said: ‘This acquisition builds on MWV's long-standing commitment and scientific approach to showing medication packaging's impact as an important adherence intervention.
 
‘We recognize the critical global need to create packaging solutions that address the issue of medication non-adherence.
 
‘With the acquisition of Aardex Group, MWV will now be able to provide customers with a complete range of packaging, data analysis and service solutions that address non-adherence to medications, from phase II clinical trials all the way through commercialization.’
 

Commitment to patient adherence

Vrijens said: ‘The trend to measure patient adherence in the clinical drug development process is clearly growing.
 
‘MWV's history in and commitment to better patient adherence, its ability to help Aardex Group scale up its business, and its presence as a global and strategic supplier to many pharmaceutical companies make this a great fit for both companies.’
 
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