Forest Laboratories joins SAFE-BioPharma Association

Forest Laboratories has been announced as the latest pharmaceutical company to become a member of the SAFE-BioPharma Association.

The organisation – which was created with the participation of the European Medicines Agency and US Food and Drug Administration – provides firms with access to unified digital identities and signature standards, facilitating electronic transactions.

As a result of this move, Forest Laboratories staff will now be able to apply legally-binding digital signatures to electronic documents that will be widely recognised by regulatory bodies in both the EU and US.

Other leading companies that are members of the association include Pfizer, Roche, GlaxoSmithKline, Bristol-Myers Squibb and Lilly.

Mollie Shields-Uehling, president and chief executive officer of the SAFE-BioPharma Association, said this shows Forest Laboratories is "streamlining [its] systems by shifting to interoperable digital identities and digital signatures".

Last month, Forest announced that it has agreed a deal to purchase the specialty pharmaceutical firm Clinical Data, manufacturer of the antidepressant treatment Viibryd.