Digital Signature Solution Enhances Electronic Lab Notebooks at Novozymes

Digital Signature Solution Enhances Electronic Lab Notebooks at Novozymes

The world leader in bio-innovation uses ARX's CoSign® digital signatures to sign, seal, and secure documents within their Electronic Lab Notebooks (ELNs).

San Francisco, California, June 15, 2010

ARX (Algorithmic Research), a leading provider of digital signature solutions, has deployed CoSign® digital signatures at Novozymes, a leading bio-innovation organization based in Denmark. CoSign is being used within Novozymes' Microsoft® SharePoint®-based Electronic Lab Notebook (ELN) for signing electronic scientific notes, reports, studies and more.

In order to minimize disruption to their existing processes and procedures, Novozymes chose to develop their own, custom-built ELN solution. By taking their lab processes digital, Novozymes saves the time it takes for teams of scientists to assemble and authorize paper-based documentation. Through the ELN, documents proving scientific discovery and product inventions (which are later used in patent applications) are approved and trusted via standard digital signatures, and made electronically available to an unlimited number of researchers from remote locations, for years into the future. The potential benefits of enhanced collaboration and document control influenced Novozymes' decision to base their ELN solution on a SharePoint foundation, a document management platform which they were already using for various other business processes. The addition of digital signatures to the ELN makes the entire solution electronic through-out.

Novozymes' ELN deployment incorporates ARX's CoSign digital signature solution for enhanced security and verification. With CoSign, the digitally signed documents offer proof of signer identity, intent, the date and time of signing, and identity binding to specific areas of each document that the signer has authorized. Since CoSign is standards-based (based on Public Key Infrastructure, or PKI, technology), the digitally signed electronic documents are verifiable by both internal employees and external personnel, who may also verify that the data has not been altered since it was signed.

"By taking our lab notebooks online, our researches now have direct access to more than 250 existing projects, in one language, across time zones, which is a tremendous benefit in terms of knowledge sharing and securing our rights to innovation," explains Peter Wagner, Senior Manager, Novozymes. "With CoSign enabling us to sign-off on experiments, we're able to enjoy the full benefits of our ELN solution and keep our documentation digital throughout its full lifecycle."

By implementing their ELN solution, Novozymes has gained the ability to capture proof of invention as early as possible in the discovery process, which is crucial in the patent process and control of Intellectual Property. The CoSign digital signature solution integrated within their ELN enables the appropriate personnel to authorize documents, reinforce consistent procedures, and time stamp documentation. Further, if a patent dispute arises, CoSign signatures can be relied upon to provide the necessary verification or electronic evidence, even years into the future.

"Electronic Lab Notebooks and patent documentation have become popular applications for CoSign," explains Rodd Schlerf, Life Science Market Manager at ARX. "Global PDF and digital signature standards ensure that, even decades from now, the ELN documentation will be human readable, verifiable, and have legal force and effect, all important considerations for patents that extend well into the future."


About Novozymes

Novozymes is the world leader in bio-innovation. Together with customers across a broad array of industries Novozymes creates tomorrow's industrial biosolutions, improving the customers' business, and the use of the planet's resources.

With over 700 products used in 130 countries, Novozymes' bio-innovations increase industrial performance and safeguard the world's resources by offering superior and sustainable solutions for tomorrow's ever-changing marketplace.


About CoSign Digital Signatures in Life Sciences

ARX (Algorithmic Research) is a global provider of cost-efficient digital signature solutions for industries such as life sciences, healthcare, government, engineering, and energy.

ARX's CoSign digital signature solution fully automates approval workflows, allowing organizations to go paperless, expedite business processes, and eliminate the expenses and time allocations that paper-based signatures require. CoSign is the most widely-deployed digital signature solution in the Life Sciences industry, employed by over 10,000 FDA-regulated organizations including 5 of the top 10 Pharmaceuticals and 4 of the top 10 CROs. Via its standards-based underpinnings, the CoSign digital signature solution ensures signer intent, document integrity and compliance, while significantly streamlining business processes. CoSign creates a truly collaborative environment for the multiple parties involved in the Life Sciences ecosystem, enabling trust of electronic documentation spanning geographic locations and across organizations.

Last updated: Apr 7, 2020 at 12:02 pm CDT