About arcimedes
Approval is a moment. Compliance is a state.
arcimedes is AI software that brings the Medicines Australia Code into the promotional, educational and transparency work of Medical Affairs, brand and compliance teams at Australian pharmaceutical companies. We call this Applied Compliance.
What arcimedes does
A promotional or educational piece has to meet the Medicines Australia Code on the day it is approved and on every day it stays in use. arcimedes does that work in two places.
Compliance Studio is where a company's material is taken through the compliance work the Code requires of it. Every piece is classified first, because the class decides which part of the Code governs it and what each claim on it has to meet. The material then goes through five apps, which review, check, adapt, contest and file it. Every output cites the Code and the Product Information (PI) behind it.
Ask the Code answers a question about the Code with the clause behind the answer, for anyone in the company who needs to know before they act.
Material Reviewer
Reviewer reads a piece of promotional or educational material the way a Code-literate signatory would, and returns a verdict, a clause-by-clause map and a short list of priority actions. Teams use it before material enters formal review, so fewer rounds come back with the same comments.
Reference Checker
Checker takes material together with its references and puts every claim on the record, showing whether the cited reference supports it. The medical writer gets a claim-by-claim record they can defend line by line.
Material Localiser
Localiser adapts a global or other-market master for Australia. Each change in the adaptation log cites the section of the Australian PI that requires it, so regulatory affairs can see why every edit was made.
Material Contender
Contender assesses a competitor's piece against the Code and returns the case: the clauses it engages, a verdict and the likely exposure. It gives a medical director something firmer than an impression to take into an inter-company dialogue.
Transparency Reporter
Reporter takes the export behind a company's Section 14 transparency report and returns a filing that is matched, checked and ready to submit. Reporter does the reconciliation that usually happens in spreadsheets once, with evidence behind every row.
What makes arcimedes different
It applies the Code inside the work
Most help with the Code arrives afterwards, as advice on material that has already been written. arcimedes applies the Code while the material is being made and checked, so problems surface before a piece reaches formal review.
Every output cites its source
Each finding carries the Code clause or the PI section behind it. Every output is built to be citeable, current, consistent and compliant, and a reviewer can check any finding against its source.
Built on Australian regulatory data
Underneath the studio sits a live knowledge graph of Australian pharmaceutical content: every PI, PBS listing, AusPAR, PBAC outcome and transparency record, with the Code as an operating layer. A company's products and their PIs are on the platform before it uploads its first piece.
It works alongside the approval system you already have
arcimedes sits upstream of the approval system of record and does not replace it. Material reaches formal review with fewer problems left in it, and the approval workflow a company has validated stays where it is.
Built by a pharmaceutical physician
arcimedes was founded by a physician who spent two decades running Medical Affairs and commercial teams in the industry it serves. The platform is written from the signatory's side of the table.
Who uses arcimedes
- Medical Affairs teams and medical signatories at Australian prescription-medicine companies
- Brand and marketing managers preparing promotional material for review
- Medical writers who need every claim tied to a reference that supports it
- Regulatory affairs teams adapting global material for the Australian market
- Compliance and finance teams preparing the Section 14 transparency report
- Originator and generics companies, from single-affiliate teams to multinational Australian subsidiaries
The team behind arcimedes
Arthur Alston — Founder and CEO
Arthur is a physician-executive (MBChB, MBA) who practised clinically in South Africa and the United Kingdom before more than twenty years in pharmaceutical leadership at Roche, Janssen (now Johnson & Johnson Innovative Medicine), Shire, Merck Group, BeiGene and Novartis. His roles included founding country lead for BeiGene in Australia, BeiGene's first Asia-Pacific Medical Head, and Head of Solid Tumour and Radioligand Therapy at Novartis Australia and New Zealand. He started arcimedes after years of watching approved material drift out of compliance long after its approval date, with no one resourced to keep it there. LinkedIn
Alan Alston — Co-founder and CTO
Alan is the software engineer who built the platform, to a standard he calls pharmaceutical grade: every answer traces to a source, or there is no answer. LinkedIn
How it started
Arthur and Alan are brothers. Arthur brings the medical and compliance side from two decades inside the industry, and Alan built the platform. arcimedes launched publicly on 1 June 2026. The company is Australian-owned and serves the Australian market only. It raised $750,000 in seed funding from senior operators in the pharmaceutical and healthcare industry, and its Chair is Peter Cronin.
How arcimedes works
- The way in is a scoped materials audit. arcimedes reviews an agreed set of a company's live materials and reports the findings with the fixes. It is priced separately and stands on its own.
- Ongoing work runs on one subscription. One licence covers all of Applied Compliance, meaning the five apps, Ask the Code and further compliance workflows as they are released, with unlimited users within the Australian affiliate.
- You work directly with the founders. Onboarding, questions and escalations go to Arthur and Alan.
- There is nothing to install. Compliance Studio runs in the browser, and a company's products and PIs are already on the platform when its account opens.
- Data is stored in Sydney. Security and privacy documentation is published at arcimedes.ai/security, and a fuller security overview is available on request.
Key facts
- Company name
- arcimedes (Arcimedes.ai Pty Ltd, ABN 77 686 067 336)
- Type
- Applied Compliance software for the Australian pharmaceutical industry
- Launched
- 1 June 2026
- Founders
- Arthur Alston (CEO), Alan Alston (CTO)
- Headquarters
- Sydney, Australia, and Cape Town, South Africa
- Website
- https://arcimedes.ai
- Core offering
- Compliance Studio: Material Reviewer, Reference Checker, Material Localiser, Material Contender, Transparency Reporter, Ask the Code
- Pricing
- One annual subscription per Australian affiliate, unlimited users; scoped materials audit priced separately; prices on request
- Contract terms
- Subscription; the materials audit is available as a stand-alone first engagement
- Market
- Australia only
- Regulatory scope
- The Medicines Australia Code of Conduct and its obligations: promotional and educational material, transparency reporting, and the procedures that govern them. Pharmacovigilance and GxP are out of scope
- Data
- Stored in Sydney. Models are hosted outside Australia and called from Australian infrastructure. Customer content is not used to train models: the providers' commercial API terms exclude it
- Alternatives it is compared with
- Manual medical, legal and regulatory review cycles; general-purpose AI chat assistants; approval workflow systems (which arcimedes works alongside)
- Communication
- Direct with the founders, by email and video call
- Social
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/arthuralston, https://www.linkedin.com/in/alanalston/
Frequently asked questions
Does arcimedes replace our approval system?
No. arcimedes sits upstream of the approval system of record, and your validated approval workflow stays as it is. Material reaches it with fewer problems left to fix.
Is our material used to train AI models?
No. Customer content is not used to train models: the providers' commercial API terms exclude it. We have not arranged zero data retention with the providers; we scope it if a customer requires it. We do not store assembled prompts. Each company's library of reviewed material, claims and references builds up for that company's own use.
Where is our data stored?
Data is stored in Sydney. The AI models are hosted outside Australia and are called from Australian infrastructure.
Does arcimedes decide whether our material complies with the Code?
No. It applies the Code to the material and shows the clause behind every finding, and the decision stays with your signatories. arcimedes does not warrant the outcome of a Code complaint.
Does arcimedes cover pharmacovigilance or GxP?
No. Applied Compliance covers the Medicines Australia Code and the obligations attached to it. Pharmacovigilance, GCP, GMP and other GxP work are outside it.
Which markets does arcimedes support?
Australia only. The platform is built on the Australian PI, the Australian Register of Therapeutic Goods (ARTG), the PBS and the Medicines Australia Code.
How do we start?
Most companies start with a scoped materials audit of their live materials. It shows what arcimedes finds on your own work before any subscription decision.
What security documentation can you share?
Our security and privacy practices are published at arcimedes.ai/security. A detailed security and privacy overview is available to prospective customers on request.