Thin Film Electronics ASA ("Thinfilm"), a leader in the development of printed electronics, and Temptime Corporation, the world's leading provider of time-temperature indicators to the health care industry, has announced a strategic alliance that will bring new technology to the pharmaceutical market. The companies will collaborate to develop the health care industry's first temperature indicators featuring electronic technology that will alert people through digital display if medical products have been exposed to potentially damaging temperatures.

"Temptime is highly regarded as the pioneer and leading authority on the science behind temperature monitoring technology. The company serves the world's largest healthcare organizations and leading manufacturers," stated Davor Sutija, CEO of Thin Film. "I'm delighted Temptime has selected Thinfilm technology to deliver new and leading-edge products to its customers."

The proper storage of temperature-sensitive medical products such as pharmaceuticals, vaccines and medical devices is critical to a product's efficacy and patient safety profile. The digital display on Thinfilm's smart labels eliminates any ambiguity around temperature readings and clearly indicates if an excursion has occurred. Temptime is the first company that will invest in adding the smart labels with integrated electronic sensing and digital display technology to its portfolio of devices that support the world's leading health organizations with their efforts to safely distribute medical products around the world.

"This agreement is another initiative that supports Temptime's mission of improving global health and patient safety through solutions that alert people to the risk of using medical products damaged by extreme temperatures," said Renaat Van den Hooff, president, Temptime. "We are pleased to align with Thinfilm, an equally innovative company, to develop and produce cost-effective, electronic temperature indicators that accurately communicate critical temperature threshold data."

Terms of the deal include a development-related investment from Temptime and commercial pre-orders for samples that can be shared with customers, the timing for which is still to be determined.

In addition to Thinfilm's own technology and logic, key components of the smart labels will be provided by several Thinfilm ecosystem partners, including thermistors from PST and electrochromic displays from Acreo.