Leading Pharmaceutical Company, Lundbeck Australia, Deploys Centra Web Collaboration Platform for Critical Drug Training Initiatives

Business Wire, Sept 5, 2002

Business/Technology Editors & Health/Medical Writers

LEXINGTON, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 5, 2002

Convenient Real-time Access to Product Experts Helps Pharmaceutical

Sales Team Become More Productive, Knowledgeable on Clinical Drug

Claims

Centra (NASDAQ: CTRA), the leading provider of integrated software solutions for real-time Internet business communication and collaboration, today announced that Lundbeck Australia PTY LTD, a subsidiary of the Danish pharmaceutical company H. Lundbeck A/S, has deployed Centra's Web collaboration platform to enable real-time, online business communications and training for its national sales team. Subject to tightly-regulated industry standards and codes of conduct that specify what representatives should say to doctors and pharmacists relative to prescribing and dispensing products, Lundbeck is obligated to provide them with a high standard of communication, collaboration and training.

Prior to implementing the CentraOne(TM) platform, Lundbeck's field representatives received information from product experts using more traditional methods, including classroom instruction and the manual distribution of self-paced materials. To reduce the constant and cost-consuming updates that these methods require, Lundbeck looked for other ways to keep the sales team well-informed on new and current drugs, including those for the treatment of depression and psychosis. Using CentraOne, Lundbeck is able to connect reps with product experts in real time for shorter, more focused and cost-efficient updates.

Lundbeck Australia is using the CentraOne platform to achieve foundation-learning objectives for critical new product pre-launch training. The Centra-delivered sessions allow the representatives to learn the basics from the product experts prior to traditional training sessions. This has halved the time that must be devoted to traditional sessions and dramatically increased the effectiveness of the learning program.

According to Glenn Jacob, Manager of Human Resources for Lundbeck Australia, "Centra is a fast and effective way to bridge time and distance gaps for our highly dispersed sales team. Using this Web communication platform, we can preserve the intimacy of our corporate culture and accelerate the distribution of critical, product performance information."

Initial online sessions were developed to address changes in product information, including official documents that contain clinical product claims, precautions, regulatory approval status, and descriptions of how the body deals with each drug. Since the Australian government requires full disclosure of clinical trial documents to doctors and pharmacists in order to make product claims, Lundbeck sales representatives must have precise information regarding their contents. Since deployment of the Centra system, Lundbeck has measured a dramatic increase in the level and currency of sales team product knowledge. And, since representatives no longer have to travel or take time away from their work with doctors and pharmacists to attend sales meetings and training sessions, Lundbeck has already seen an immediate return on their Centra investment through savings on travel expenses alone.

Scaleable Software Solution for Enterprise Collaboration

Used by more than 900 companies, government agencies, and universities worldwide, Centra's scaleable software solutions are based on CentraOne, an open and extensible Web collaboration platform. Leveraging the core capabilities of CentraOne, Centra offers a suite of compatible, real-time Web collaboration applications, content composition tools, and knowledge delivery systems that can be quickly installed on-site using Centra's rapid deployment methodology, or conveniently accessed through Centra's secure, full-service ASP. The applications supported by CentraOne - including interactive Web meetings, virtual classrooms, and large-scale conferences - ensure universal access to users through firewalls and proxy servers, and deliver full-performance IP audio conferencing, streaming video, application sharing, and dynamic multimedia over low-bandwidth network connections through a standard browser interface

"One of Centra's primary strengths is our ability to help organizations with widely varying requirements realize a tangible, rapid return on their investments," said Steve Thomas, Centra's Director of Sales in the Asia-Pacific region. "We work hard to understand the needs of our customers and provide them with the applications they need to plan, manage and support key business initiatives, such as those at Lundbeck."

About Lundbeck Pharmaceutical

With over 4,000 employees worldwide, H. Lundbeck A/S is an international pharmaceutical company engaged in the research and development, production, marketing and sale of drugs for the treatment of psychiatric and neurological disorders. For more information visit www.lundbeck.com.

About Centra

Leading with an undisputed track record of helping millions of users to increase revenue and improve overall business performance, Centra provides Web collaboration solutions that enable the delivery of information in a variety of live and self-service formats, and add value through unmatched capabilities to capture interactions and content, personalize and manage this information, and instantly re-use it across the enterprise. Today hundreds of global organizations across every industry and market sector choose Centra, including Cadbury Schweppes, Citigroup, AT&T, Procter & Gamble, McKesson, Merck, Nationwide Insurance, and Sysco. Centra's products are bolstered by a vital ecosystem of strategic partners, including PwC Consulting, Deloitte Consulting, EDS, Microsoft, Siebel, Cisco, and Oracle. Headquartered in Boston's technology corridor, Centra has sales offices throughout North America, Europe and Asia. For more information, visit www.centra.com.