Ever wonder what happened to Conformia, the California-based PLM software company? Formerly a partner with SAP, Conformia had established a CRADA with FDA, with whom it had organized conferences designed to promote discussion and implementation of Quality by Design. This CRADA group had helped develop the ACE case study for QbD involving small molecules. The meetings were cross-functional and promoted open discussion. I attended one and saw how valuable they were...then the company suddenly disappeared.
The driving force behind Conformia in pharma was founder and original CEO, Anjali Kataria (click here for an interview we did with her a while ago and here for an old Infoweek article)... We hadn't heard anything about them for quite a while, although their web site was still up....we all know how rocky the economy is, and their VC company had suffered like everyone else. I'd heard rumors but nothing substantive.
In the past, I had often wondered why they hadn't also allied with Oracle....Surprise....Oracle has just officially bought them. Click here for more. I had heard last summer that Anjali had relocated and hear that she has established a non-profit group in the D.C. area devoted to advancing QbD principles. Stay tuned for more....
AMS
