Many of us have someone close to us who receives intravenous (IV) therapies at a hospital or healthcare facility. For example, we heard last week of a ten-year-old boy who needed his monthly infusion for his rare disease, but he missed his appointment. It wasn’t the first time. He told his infusion nurse that he was not sad when his mother forgot the infusion appointment. He didn’t remind his mom because he hates going to get his IV infusion. But a few days later, when he began to show symptoms and felt poorly, they had to return to the hospital to make up the infusion.
On that makeup infusion, the boy was so upset that the whole procedure had to be delayed while one of the hospital therapy dogs was called to help. Eventually, the boy received his IV treatment with no other issues and was able to leave for home about six hours after he arrived at the hospital. As usual, he would have to make up his schoolwork, and would plan to return to the infusion chair in two weeks for yet another infusion.
For those of us at Enable Injections, these are the stories that move us to do what we do – we are working to provide patients with a new way to receive their therapy.
Enable Injections and Growth
Enable Injections, Inc., founded in 2010, has been developing the enFuse®, an innovative on-body infusor. Enable believes that the enFuse is one of the promising technologies emerging in medtech, specifically because it is designed to allow patients to self-administer therapeutics at home which may have otherwise required a visit to a healthcare facility.
Pharmaceutical Partnerships
Pharmaceutical companies partner with Enable Injections for specific therapeutics to be delivered via the enFuse. Enable’s first partnership began in 2014, and now, halfway through 2019, Enable has six partnerships.
To prepare for the rapid growth needed to serve these partnerships and the ones to come, Enable’s leadership decided to invest resources for implementing an Enterprise Information Technology (IT) system. While still in the start-up phase, Enable chose SAP to help guide and scale the growth of the company and became the earliest adopter of the SAP system.
Why SAP and Why So Early?
Enable decided on SAP’s Enterprise IT system because of its 1) phased approach, 2) seamless integration plan, 3) flexible module implementation, and 4) pharma industry positioning, and 5) scalability. SAP is an enterprise software globally known for helping businesses to scale and grow efficiently. About 85% of Enable’s pharmaceutical partners use SAP.
With Enable’s enFuse serving as the device constituent part of a combination product, the product development process through approval and beyond performs more seamlessly with partners when using the same Enterprise IT system.
When a potential partner asks which Enterprise IT system we use and whether we have controls and manufacturing software systems, we answer SAP. To date, every pharma partner has been pleasantly surprised, based upon the stage of the company.
One reason Enable Injections chose SAP is for its capability in tracking manufactured products according to FDA regulations.
Enable wanted to avoid beginning with a smaller capable ERP system and switching to a more robust system later. Enable started with SAP’s S4 Hana model to prevent having to switch in 3 or 5 years to a different package.
Tim Flaherty, CFO Enable Injections, Speaker at SAP Sapphire Conference, May 2019
The SAP Implementation Details
To implement the SAP package, Enable utilized a phased approach1. Enable used a software leasing company2 to spread the licensing over 36 months. The S4 Hana model offering includes implementing financials (phase 1), quality / onboard training and human resources (phase 2), product lifecycle management, plant maintenance, recruiting, onboarding, and warehouse management (phase 3).
Enable Injections engaged with SAP to leverage its Life Science best practices and implement a platform to support the company’s projected growth with potential to scale to a multi-billion-dollar manufacturing company.
We look forward to making a difference for patients.
Authors:
Jennifer King, Marketing Manager, Enable Injections
Tim Flaherty, EVP & CFO, Enable Injections
References:
1: Dickinson + Associates: https://www.dickinson-assoc.com/
2: Winthrop, https://www.winthropresources.com/