NEWS BRIEFS

Lafayette, CO — Aegis Analytical Corporation, developer of Manufacturing Informatics software systems, announced that it has signed a contract with Hoechst Marion Roussel, the pharmaceutical company of Hoechst AG, to install its Discoverant Manufacturing Informatics software system.

The software, which allows users to mine several manufacturing-related databases interactively to shorten the time to market for new products, and to improve the yield and quality of their existing plants, will be installed site-wide at Hoechst Marion Roussel’s North America manufacturing facility in Kansas City, MO.

Hoechst Marion Roussel is continually working to improve its manufacturing operations. In a proof-of-concept study done by Aegis, Hoechst Marion Roussel saw the potential benefits in the powerful analysis and visualization technologies in Aegis’ Discoverant system. Working closely with the Aegis team, Hoechst Marion Roussel team members will help tailor Discoverant’s requirements to meet its specific needs. This will include interactive connectivity to several disparate data sources and the ability to analyze simple discrete data from single measurements along with complex continuous data from PLCs and other control systems. The end result will be a software system with a guided user interface that turns manufacturing raw data into actionable information without the need for command line programming.

“To stay competitive, we look for breakthroughs that keep us on the leading edge of manufacturing performance,” said Charlie Portwood, Vice President for North America Operations for Hoechst Marion Roussel. “Aegis’ unique Discoverant software system can extract data from all of our world-class information and control systems and perform sophisticated analyses that identify correlations and trends in the data for use in a predictive, failure avoidance mode thus enhancing our processes and taking our performance to the next level. Once implemented, Discoverant will deliver a real-time advanced statistical and data visualization tool without users having to be experts in the applications. We’re expecting a lot from Discoverant, which ultimately will enable us to deliver products to the marketplace more quickly.”

“Our colleagues in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, food and medical device industries have told us about their unique data access, analysis and information visualization needs,” said Gretchen L. Jahn, President & CEO of Aegis Analytical Corp. “Addressing these needs has been the main thrust of the industry partnership we assembled for the initial design of our Discoverant software system. We are very pleased that Hoechst Marion Roussel will be the first site-wide installation of this ground breaking product.”

Aegis’ Manufacturing Informatics software systems will allow manufacturers to speed time to revenue and get higher product yield and quality out of their existing manufacturing plants and equipment by analyzing the large amounts of manufacturing-related data that already exist in several databases but, until this time, was not easily accessible for statistical analysis and interpretation. The company has initially targeted regulated manufacturers. Later market expansion includes other manufacturers with capital-intensive manufacturing processes. These types of businesses are under increasing pressure from customers and regulatory authorities to provide the highest level of product safety, quality and consistency. They also face stiff competition and resources constraints.

Aegis’ first product, Discoverant, which runs on Windows NT and Unix-based computing platforms, is a client-server, domain-specific data mining and information discovery system that addresses a significant need for process improvement in regulated and capital-intensive manufacturing operations. These manufacturers have unique needs for batch process data analysis.

For more information visit http://www.aegiscorp.com

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