Aethon and BD Announce Collaboration to Develop Integrated Medication Management Solution

PITTSBURGH--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Aethon, Inc. and BD (Becton, Dickinson and Company) (NYSE: BDX), a leading global medical technology company, announced today a collaboration to integrate their solutions to provide hospital pharmacies with a comprehensive intravenous medication preparation and delivery tracking solution. With a pilot project already underway, the integrated solution will combine BD’s leading-edge BD Cato™ IV Workflow product with Aethon’s MedEx medication delivery tracking system.

BD Cato™ Medication Workflow Solutions is an automated pharmacy workflow system intended to drive efficiency and cost reduction while simultaneously elevating the standard of IV compounding in the cleanroom. The software is designed to minimize the probability of dose and drug errors by intercepting them in real time, while streamlining the workflow through standardization of processes including order review, inventory picking and dose preparation. The system optimizes utilization of new and partial drug vials as well as returned admixtures to reduce drug waste. Throughout the preparation process, data is captured and stored to automate documentation and enable analysis to improve productivity and accurate billing of medications. A robust portfolio of interfaces enable integration with pharmacy IT systems, inventory management software and billing systems to provide seamless order importing, dose queue management and inventory tracking within the preparation environment, thereby improving safety and efficiency.

MedEx™ by Aethon is a real-time medication tracking system used by pharmacies and nursing to track medication preparation status and delivery. MedEx helps prevent medications from being delayed, misplaced or lost. It improves the compliance, security and efficiency of medications delivered through pneumatic tube, by manual couriers or with TUG® autonomous mobile robots.

“Today’s announcement represents an exciting step forward for hospital pharmacies of every size and every distribution model. As we considered options for increasing our pharmacy workflow automation footprint and extending into medication preparation, it became evident the BD Cato solution was an ideal complement to our MedEx system. We are delighted to be working with BD to create an integrated solution and finally close the loop on the preparation and delivery of care-critical custom medications,” said Aldo Zini, CEO of Aethon, Inc.

Aethon will showcase their newest medication and IV tracking solution, MedEx TubeSafe™, during the 49th American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP) Midyear Clinical Meeting taking place December 7-11, 2014 at the Anaheim Convention Center in Orange County, California in booth #323. TubeSafe secures the pneumatic tube carrier and ensures their contents are delivered to an authorized recipient. For more information MedEx TubeSafe visit www.aethon.com/tubesafe.

BD will showcase BD Cato medication workflow solutions during the ASHP Midyear Clinical Meeting in Booth #1101. For more information about BD Cato please visit www.bd.com/cato

About Aethon

Aethon is an Intralogistics™ automation company. Our software, hardware and robotic solutions automate the delivery and tracking of goods transported and supplied throughout hospitals. The TUG® smart autonomous mobile robot has been installed in more than 140 hospitals and makes more than 50,000 deliveries each week. MedExTM, a software and hardware system used to track and secure medication deliveries from the pharmacy to the nursing unit, is used by leading hospitals. It makes the medication management processes safer, more compliant and more efficient. Aethon’s solutions have been featured in the Wall Street Journal, The Economist and on news programs such as CNN, 60 Minutes and Fox Business News. For more information, visit Aethon at the ASHP conference, booth #323, or aethon.com.

About BD

BD is a leading medical technology company that partners with customers and stakeholders to address many of the world’s most pressing and evolving health needs. Our innovative solutions are focused on improving drug delivery, enhancing the diagnosis of infectious diseases and cancers, supporting the management of diabetes and advancing cellular research. We are more than 30,000 associates in 50 countries who strive to fulfill our purpose of “Helping all people live healthy lives” by advancing the quality, accessibility, safety and affordability of healthcare around the world. For more information, please visit www.bd.com.

Aethon
Tony Melanson, Vice President, Marketing, 412-322-2975
Tmelanson@aethon.com
or
BD
Matt Coppola, Public Relations, 201-847-7370
Matthew_R_Coppola@bd.com

Source: Aethon, Inc. and BD