New Business Alliance Adopts Open XML Formats
April 5, 2006 by Jason Bean
Filed under Computers
A new business alliance that was formed to connect the pharmaceutical, biotech, hardward and software industries has accepted the Open XML format to share their data. The Bio-IT Alliance has accepted the format to improve their efficiency in transporting data across their various systems.
“Through the BioIT Alliance, we are working closely with Microsoft to increase data access across our instrument systems and data analysis software tools using Ecma Open Office XML,” said Catherine M. Burzik, president of Applied Biosystems. “This format enables life science companies to access data using the familiar Microsoft Office Excel(R) interface, providing them with the insight they need to make decisions more quickly.”
The stated purpose of Bio-IT Alliance is:
Bioitalliance.org refers to the Alliance as “a cross-industry group working together to improve biomedical informatics solutions with the Microsoft platform. [It] will enable the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, equipment manufacturing, and software industries to share best practices and develop standards for sharing biomedical data, improving collaboration, and effectively managing life sciences knowledge.”
Interesting for me is that one of the companies that is part of the new Bio-IT alliance is Amylin Pharmaceuticals, with whom I assisted them in expanding their salesforce for the launch of two new drugs during a tenure with a former employer.
Source: Microsoft Forges BioIT Alliance
