Ever want to know exactly what your contract service providers are doing on a day-to-day basis in the lab? Ever wonder how your product is moving along in its manufacturing process? A new video monitoring service from Metrics, called “PharmaVision,” can now give you these opportunities.

I was able to see the video software in action at the AAPS annual meeting and exposition in New Orleans last week. The idea is to allow sponsor companies based long distances away from their contracted labs or plants to check in with their hired operations and even to make remote changes to production in real time. The video can stream from the plant to the sponsor 24 hours a day and be monitored by the sponsor company as often as it likes.

Apparently, a few other contract research and manufacturing organizations are starting to offer the same type of service. There is one catch with the Metrics’ program though. According to their booth representative at AAPS, the video is not recorded and therefore not archived. So, if one wanted to view tape from a certain date or point in time, that option is not yet available.

Overall, the software sounds as though it can ease some supply-chain concerns, assuming the video stream is well controlled and that the personnel being taped don’t have any privacy concerns.