Clinical Research Associates - Latest News  

Troubled e-clinical specialist Datatrak International (Cleveland, Ohio) could be up for sale shortly, depending on the outcome of a review of strategic options now under way.

In the latest of five acquisitions, Worldwide Clinical Trials (Beverley Hills, California) has completed the purchase of Serbian CRO MediQuest (Belgrade).

Canadian CRO Algorithme Pharma (Laval, Quebec) has acquired a US clinical research centre from Bioanalytical Systems (BASi - West Lafayette, Indiana) for US$850,000 in cash.

US e-clinical specialist Datatrak International (Cleveland, Ohio) has decided to close its office in Bonn, Germany. Global help-desk services previously carried out by the office will now be provided from the company’s Cleveland headquarters.

Veeda Oncology (Columbus, Ohio) has acquired French cancer trials specialist Biologie et Industrie for an undisclosed sum.

Quintiles Transnational (Research Triangle Park, North Carolina) has signed an agreement to acquire Eidetics (Boston, Massachusetts), a privately held healthcare market research and consulting firm. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Pharmaceutical services company i3 (Basking Ridge, New Jersey) has acquired Russian CRO Lege Artis (Moscow). Financial terms were not disclosed.

Mixed results for Novartis’s first-in-class direct renin inhibitor, Rasilez (aliskiren), have been reported from the ALLAY study at the American College of Cardiology meeting in Chicago, US.

Quintiles Transnational (North Carolina) has signed an agreement with Medca Japan to provide central laboratory services in Japan. Quintiles will have its own staff at the Medca Japan laboratory in Saitama, a city in the Greater Tokyo area

QPS (Newark, Delaware) has acquired early-phase specialist Bio-Kinetic Clinical Applications (Springfield, Missouri). Bio-Kinetic has a 240-bed Phase I facility - one of the largest in the US owned by an independent CRO.

US biotechnology company GeoVax Labs’ (Atlanta, Georgia) HIV/AIDS vaccine is expected to enter Phase IIa human trials in mid-2008.

Clinical technology specialist ClinPhone (Nottingham, UK) has rejected a preliminary approach from Parexel International regarding a possible offer for the company.

Polish CRO KCR (Warsaw) has acquired its Czech counterpart DUX Consulting (Prague). The value of the transaction was not disclosed.

Quintiles Transnational (Research Triangle Park, North Carolina) has completed a new investor partnership in which CEO Dennis Gillings and private investment firms Bain Capital and TPG Capital have become the lead investors.

GlaxoSmithKline has decided not to exercise its option to license Exelixis’s (San Francisco, California) kidney disease drug XL784 for further development and commercialisation.

Quintiles Transnational (Research Triangle Park, North Carolina) is to expand its global central laboratories and clinical development service (CDS) units in Beijing, China.

The US Food and Drug Administration has lifted its clinical hold on Vion Pharmaceuticals’ Phase III trial of its lead anti-cancer agent, Cloretazine (VNP40101M), in combination with Ara-C (cytarabine) in relapsed acute myelogenous leukaemia (AML).

US CRO Clinsys Clinical Research (Bedminster, New Jersey) and its French counterpart ITEC Services (Cenon, Bordeaux) have entered into a strategic alliance agreement.