Contract research news in brief
pharmafile | August 11, 2009 | News story | Research and Development |Â Â CRO, OmnicomÂ
Pharmafocus presents its periodic round-up of developments in the contract research sector, including updates from Pharm-Olam, OmniComm, SIRO, Ecron Acunova and Covance.
Houston, US-based Pharm-Olam International says it is on the prowl for acquisitions in the contract research sector and is looking at both service providers and technology companies. To that end the company has appointed a new strategic development director, Matt Delaney, who joins the firm from Dell Computers.
OmniComm has acquired Logos Technologies' electronic data capture (EDC) assets, adding to its eClinical stable after purchasing eResearch Technologies EDC business in June. The spending spree has given OmniComm a "wide array of state of the art, cost-effective tools to capture and track outcomes of clinical trials," according to chief executive Cornelis Wit. The Logos deal takes it into the phase I clinical trials sector for EDC, which is not so competitive as later stages of clinical research and represents a market valued at around $120 million a year.
Indian contract research organisation SIRO Clinpharm has bolstered its capabilities with the addition of Oracle's Life Science Application Suite (LSAS), a software package which automates the management of clinical trial processes, clinical trial data and adverse event reporting. The company said it would shortly roll out the system to its European operations and other units around the world.
As consolidation in the contract research sector gains pace around the world, US company Essential CRO has forged an alliance with Ecron Acunova of India to help each other compete on the global stage. The Indian firm, which also operates units in the US and Germany, said earlier this year it was "scouting for more market share" around the world. The alliance now covers "18 countries in key emerging sectors for clinical research", according to a joint press release.
India is among the fastest-growing locations for clinical trials in the world, with nine of the top 15 multinational pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies now operating clinical research centres there, according to a report by the Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry and Ernst & Young entitled "The Glorious Metamorphosis – Compelling reasons for doing clinical research in India."
Covance says it has become the first CRO to support a technique for toxicokinetics/pharmacokinetics known as dried blood spot (DBS) sampling, which provides "higher quality toxicokinetic data while reducing test article, shipping, and storage requirements". The CRO spent more than a year analysing thousands of DBS samples from multiple studies to perfect the bioanalytical technique.
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