Research laboratory services

Tender description

The TICTAC visual drug identification system is a database and software system that enables users to instantly identify over 34 921 solid dose medicines and drugs, based on physical characteristics. TICTAC provides images, product name, active ingredients, size, weight, street names, legal status, manufacturer, audio clip of correct pronunciation and for licensed medicines, dose, license number, DM+D AMP code and links to the SPC. The licence covers a single user within each of the following 4 National Poisons Information Service (NPIS) centres which include (1) Llandough Hospital, NPIS (Cardiff Centre) (2) City Hospital NHS Trust, NPIS (3) NPIS Edinburgh (Scottish Poisons Information Bureau) NPIS Edinburgh and (4) NIPS (Newcastle), Regional Drug and Therapeutics Centre NPIS. The duration of the contract will be for 3 years. TICTAC appear to be the sole supplier of this database and software systems, there are no other suppliers of the TICTAC system, nor of any similar system. The main reason for this is the database which drives TICTAC. It is created from their collection of medicines and drugs. This currently stands at 34 921 and on average, 100 new ones are added each month. It is the largest collection of different medicines and drugs in Europe and perhaps the world. Public Health England (PHE) require the provision of licence to TICTAC Pro for the National Poisons Information Service centres (NPIS) to search and identify over 34 500 medicines and drugs instantly. TICTAC provides images, product name, active ingredients, size, weight, street names, legal status, manufacturer, audio clip of correct pronunciation and for licensed medicines, dose, license number, DM+D AMP code and links to the Summary of Product Characteristics (SPC). The duration of the contract will be for 3 years. TICTAC do not licence to third party suppliers. PHE has been using this database and software system since 1998 and for us to consider installing a new system and retraining staff will be too expensive for PHE, an expense PHE cannot incur. Considerable investment is required to get the same outcome therefore, it will not be economically viable for a new system at this present moment. If you feel that you can meet the requirements, please reply to this message with the details. Please do not respond if you cannot fulfil this requirement. Regards, Anwar Hossain Senior Administrative Support — ICT