Contract research news in brief
pharmafile | April 20, 2011 | News story | Research and Development | CRO, contract research
Our contract research news round-up features updates from BioClinica, Vyteris, CROMSOURCE, Quintiles, Imperial/D. Anderson and PRA International.
Clinical trial management specialist BioClinica says it has won seven new clients for the use of its Trident IWR (interactive web response) platform in the first quarter of 2011. Trident IWR is used by sponsors to help build and deploy clinical trials without the need for programming. The company says that since launching the platform last October – and signing up GlaxoSmithKline as a major new client the following December – it has received “an incredible industry-wide response”.
Drug delivery company Vyteris has expanded its position in the CRO sector with the purchase of MediSync BioServices, a company which specialises in acquiring site management organisations (SMOs) and other contract research businesses. “With MediSync we look to advance our strategy for consolidation, growth and profitability in an established industry with exciting growth potential,” commented Vyteris’ chief executive Haro Hartounian.
CROM, a CRO headquartered in Verona, Italy specialising in clinical resourcing and medical device trials, has merged with MSOURCE to create a new company called CROMSOURCE. The new CRO, with 400 employees and annual turnover of around 50 million euros, says it offers international coverage and a range of clinical research services and staffing solutions. CROMSOURCE will be led by CROM founder Oriana Zerbini.
Quintiles will donate $2.6 million over four years to support I-SPY 2, an adaptive clinical trial designed to accelerate breast cancer drug development whilst also cutting costs. I-SPY 2 involves 800 patients with advanced breast cancer at time of primary diagnosis and employs adaptive trial design and biomarkers from individual patients’ tumours to screen multiple investigational therapies simultaneously. Other bodies taking part in the US trial include the Foundation of the National Institutes of Health, the National Cancer Institute and the FDA. The trial will cost approximately $27 million over five years.
Anglo-American CRO Imperial has acquired US patient recruitment specialist D. Anderson & Co for an undisclosed amount in another example of increasing consolidation in the outsourcing sector. The privately-held company said that the combined company has “the capacity to serve clinical trial sponsors regardless of need, size, location or disease sector”. D. Anderson’s services include patient recruitment and retention, strategic site selection and management and staff training, while Imperial focuses on patient recruitment, clinical operations and data management.
Contract research organisation PRA International says one of its clinical research associates – Jo West – has been named US Clinical Researcher of the Year in the annual PharmaTimes competition. West, who works at PRA’s facility in North Carolina, competed with more than 250 other contestants in the competition.
Phil Taylor
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