Two is better than one

NEWTOWN, Pa.—BioClinica Inc., a leading global provider of specialized outsourced clinical trial services, has signed $30 million in multiyear contract renewals with two of the 10 top major pharmaceutical companies through 2017. The identities of the two pharmas were not disclosed.

The key to BioClinica technologies’ appeal, according to the company, is that it compresses the clinical investigation timeline. Simply put: BioClinica’s technology is fast.

“In our experience with one of these customers we have reduced study startup time to two weeks on most of their trials and have cut closeout time to just one week,” Peter Benton, BioClinical president of eClinical Solutions, stated in a news release about the deals. “Employing standards and electronic forms libraries also brings speed and efficiency, which becomes especially apparent to sponsors like this who are running high-volume studies.”

In the first agreement, BioClinica will provide resources and subject matter expertise in clinical supply chain distribution systems and processes that extend to several thousand investigators using interactive response technology (IRT) worldwide.

In the second agreement, BioClinica’s OnPoint CTMS and Express EDC technologies will provide the foundation for the customer’s clinical operations, as well as data management, study design and related professional services that support clinical studies globally.

Collectively these engagements encompass cloud-based technologies and professional services and training across BioClinica’s full eClinical product suite: OnPoint CTMS, Express EDC, Trident IRT, and clinical supplies Optimizer, the company stated.

The contracts call for BioClinica to support several hundred clinical studies annually through 2017.

“Large back-to-back awards like this demonstrate that BioClinica lives up to the high expectations of top-tier pharma,” Benton said. “BioClinica technologies accommodate the high volume of studies conducted by large life-science companies, and enable sponsors to drive their research forward.”

The contracts extend partnering arrangements that originated a decade ago, he said.

“While we never take a customer for granted, it was no surprise that these companies would renew their contracts with us,” Benton tells DDNews. “We have strong relationships with these customers, built on years of meeting and exceeding expectations while delivering quality results. There was a competitive process to these contracts, which is gratifying, as it validates the value these companies place on the results we have delivered over the years when compared to the promises of other providers.

“We also offer the experience and expertise of our team,” he adds. “For large pharmaceutical customers running multiple trials on a constant basis, it makes sense to have a dedicated team to launch and manage trials through our tools.

“Embedding BioClinica employees in a sponsor’s organization makes this extremely efficient as our people can then work hand-in-hand with the trial team to streamline the process and get trials up and running faster,” Benton continues.

BioClinica solutions “are designed to make clinical trials easier for sponsors, investigators and even subjects,” he says. “Our flexible cloud-based eClinical solutions deliver ease of use without compromising power or features.”

With BioClinica, “there’s no need for additional resources or IT investments and no learning curve or lengthy training period,” according to Benton. “We provide everything that is necessary to run a successful eClinical trial, from forms and edit checks, to reporting and coding. There are many competitors in this space offering their own take on clinical trial management. Oracle Life Sciences and Medidata Solutions are our primary competitors in the eClinical technology space, but our customer service, speed and agility differentiate us greatly.

“We plan to continue to enhance our suite of advanced, powerful eClinical Solutions based on customer input and our own innovative ideas,” he adds. “We will build on our success and keep expanding our share of the market.”

With each year, more sponsors and CROs contact BioClinica requesting demonstrations, he said. Of course, it hasn’t hurt that BioClinica got a little help from friends in the form of a merger recently. Water Street Healthcare Partners, a strategic investor focused exclusively on the healthcare industry, and JLL Partners, a leading middle-market private equity firm, merged their companies CCBR-SYNARC and BioClinica. The combination created a leading global provider of specialty outsourced clinical services.

JLL Partners and Water Street invested in BioClinica and CCBR-SYNARC in 2013 and reached an agreement earlier this year to combine the two companies, finally completing the process in March.

The firms recruited Jeffrey McMullen, an executive with 40 years of experience in the drug development industry, to serve as chairman. Together, BioClinica and CCBR-SYNARC offer a comprehensive suite of services that support the world’s largest pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies with reducing the cost and time of global clinical trials.

“This merger creates a market leader uniquely positioned to support pharmaceutical companies with managing key components of their clinical trials,” said Peter Strothman, a partner at Water Street. “Together, CCBR-SYNARC and BioClinica offer the industry’s most comprehensive clinical imaging program across all major therapeutic areas that can interact with any contract research organization. In addition, they offer complementary services and software solutions in the high-growth areas of patient recruitment and clinical development.”

Dan Agroskin, a partner at JLL Partners, added, “Pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies are increasingly turning to outside specialists to help them manage the cost and complexities of drug development.”

As one entity, CCBR-SYNARC and BioClinica offer a combination of scientific expertise, clinical trial experience and advanced technologies that solve challenges across the drug development continuum, the combined company’s leaders say, adding that their solutions are proven to reduce clinical trial costs, shorten drug development time and improve data quality and compliance.

Together, CCBR-SYNARC and BioClinica support pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies with a portfolio of specialized outsourced services that include medical imaging analysis, patient recruitment for participation in clinical trials and software solutions and cardiovascular safety and efficacy.

The financial terms of the transaction are not being disclosed.