Quintiles and Parexel battle for ClinPhone
pharmafile | June 17, 2008 | News story | Sales and Marketing |Â Â Â
Clinical trial software specialist ClinPhone is at the centre of a bidding war between two of the world's largest clinical research organisations.
Parexel has made an offer for the UK company worth £91 million ($182 million), but rivals Quintiles are understood to have made a bid which would beat this offer.
ClinPhone was founded in 1993 and has pioneered the use of simple telephone and web-based technology to capture clinical trial data and make it easier to process.
The company has grown rapidly over the last 15 years, thanks to its success in producing software which simplifies the complex processes of clinical trials and helps to cut R&D costs – issues which are more pressing than ever for the industry.
The largest of the clinical research organisations (CROs) are now diversifying and deepening their expertise in specific areas of drug development with the acquisition of smaller companies such as ClinPhone.
Josef von Rickenbach, chairman and chief executive of Parexel, said its bid for ClinPhone reflected the industry's growing demand for e-technology and automation in clinical trials.
"The combination of complementary capabilities of Parexel and ClinPhone would provide clients with a more comprehensive suite of clinical information technologies.
"As the market embraces a total eClinical solution we believe clients will realise even more significant process efficiencies, greater visibility across studies, improvements in data quality and accelerated decision-making."
Parexel already provides services similar to ClinPhone through its subsidiary Perceptive Informatics, and the plan is to merge ClinPhone into this business unit.
But Quintiles, the world's biggest CRO, could yet snatch ClinPhone from under Parexel's nose.
