Staying on the alert

LITTLE FALLS, N.J.—Under a recently signed deal withWaltham, Mass.-based Phase Forward, Sentrx will offer Phase Forward'sClintrace, a Web-based adverse event tracking and reporting system, along withthe Electronic Case Submission Module (ECSM), within its Safety Data Servicesoffering and in conjunction with Sentrx Drug Safety Services.

With Phase Forward being a leading provider of datamanagement solutions for clinical trials and product safety and Sentrx being aleading provider of technology-enabled services for global drug safety, thecompanies hope their partnership will provide life sciences companies with a"sophisticated combination of safety data management and adverse eventreporting software, processes and consulting expertise," they noted in a jointnews release about the deal.

Sentrx had previously been offering just the Argus Safetypharmacovigilance software system from Relsys, and Joseph Albano, CEO ofSentrx, says that the addition of Clintrace as an alternative option issomething many customers have asked for in the past.

The two companies plan to explore other synergies in theirofferings as well. Gretchen Dock, a spokesperson for Phase Forward, declined tocomment specifically on possible future developments because her company ispublicly traded and this is a new business relationship. Albano, however, wasable to offer at least one area where he sees a great deal of future potential,and that is in true integration of clinical trial data entry and drug safetyreporting.

"There's a big demand inthe marketplace for a really integrated solution where electronic data captureproducts would integrate with drug safety so that when an investigative siteenters info in the system, they get a seamless transition for entering data forthe trial and simultaneously reporting safety events they encounter," Albanoexplains. "Typically, companies have had to use two separate products to dothat, but working with Phase Forward may offer the chance to eliminate thatproblem because they have software suites in both areas."