WCT was set up last year by Dr Neal R Cutler and private equity firm The Jordan Company (New York, NY). It reunites Dr Cutler and his team under the name of their former company, Worldwide Clinical Trials, which they founded in 1994 and sold to United Health in 1999. Over the past year, WCT has acquired four other CROs: Evidence Clinical and Pharmaceutical Research, Clinical Studies Management Group, Nottingham Clinical Research and CEDRA Corp; and now has a presence in 30 countries.
Dr Cutler is known for developing a number of innovative drug development techniques, including “bridging”
In line with these interests, WCT focuses its contract services on complex, high-growth therapeutic areas. It specialises in central nervous system and cardiovascular disease studies, with additional expertise in chronic inflammatory disease, metabolic/endocrinology and oncology – areas that are well represented among its recent spate of acquisitions.
The latest of these, MediQuest, specialises in cardiovascular disease, dermatology, gastroenterology, oncology and rheumatology studies in eastern, central and southern Europe. Founded in 2005, it owns a subsidiary in Zagreb, Croatia in addition to its Belgrade head office. The company has a clinical pharmacology unit in one of the main university hospitals in Belgrade, with access to intensive care and an on-site pharmacy. The unit has 12 hospital beds in four wards and can undertake pharmacodynamic, intensive monitoring and routine clinical trials.
… earlier acquisitions
Mediquest is WCT’s second acquisition with operations in Eastern Europe. Evidence Clinical and Pharmaceutical Research (Los Altos, California) was set up in 1989 by Dr Sergei Varshavsky, a cardiologist in St Petersburg, Russia. It was the first CRO to conduct clinical trials to GCP standards in Russia, and later in the Ukraine and Georgia; and the first to conduct a multinational clinical study in Russia. In addition to its California headquarters, it has offices in St Petersburg and in Swampscott, Massachusetts. Evidence has participated in several large-scale multinational cardiovascular studies.
Elsewhere in Europe, WCT bought Nottingham Clinical Research Ltd (Nottingham, UK), which specialises in large-scale, multinational cardiovascular clinical outcome trials. Other areas of focus include diabetes, immunology and inflammatory conditions, oncology and Rx to OTC switching. NCRL was founded in 1988 by current managing director Dr Allan Skene, who is an expert in statistical methodology and computing.
WCT has made two US acquisitions. Clinical Studies Management Group, founded in 1991 by president and CEO Annie Y Clark, provides clinical trial monitoring and management services for Phases I-IV. The company employs senior-level clinical research associates with specific therapeutic expertise to conduct study management and monitoring.
The second US purchase, CEDRA (Austin, Texas), was founded Dr David Garcia and Christopher Buggé in June 1990 to provide GLP bioanalytical services for government and the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. The company has since added bioequivalency, statistics/pharmacokinetics and clinical research services, growing from six employees in 1990 to 450 in 2008. It has a 100-bed clinical research facility in Austin and a 200-bed research centre in San Antonio, Texas. A new ligand binding laboratory is due to be opened this month.
“The acquisitions we have completed to date significantly enhance our [CRO] capabilities and our ability to manage large, global trials, within our primary therapeutic areas of focus,” said Dr Cutler. “Our presence in Eastern Europe and Russia, two of the most attractive growth regions for clinical trials, helps transform our business into a truly global contract research organisation.”
In addition to its operations in the US and Europe, WCT has an office in Buenos Aires, Argentina. It conducts trials in Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Mexico and Brazil, including clinical operations (medical and site monitoring), regulatory approvals and management, pharmacovigilance, and drug supply management. Article submitted by www.jobs4dd.com for international clinical research jobs, regulatory affairs jobs and many more pharma development positions.
