Bracket, a pre-approval speciality services division created just last month by United BioSource Corporation (UBC), has already notched up its first acquisition, taking over Arrowhead Electronic Healthcare, a US-based provider of electronic Patient-Reported Outcome (ePRO) technologies, for an undisclosed sum.
UBC said Arrowhead’s suite of ePRO solutions would be integrated into Bracket’s existing portfolio of eClinical tools, including Interactive Voice/Web Response Services (IVRS/IWRS) and eLearning platforms, to offer a “robust, mature” ePRO platform that would “simplify the planning, management, and data quality processes for global clinical trials with complex data collection needs”.
A scientific and medical affairs organisation serving the biopharmaceutical and medical device industries and a wholly owned subsidiary of pharmacy benefit manager Medco Health Solutions, UBC unveiled Bracket in June as a “speciality services provider dedicated to helping pharmaceutical sponsors and contract research organisations achieve greater certainty and accurate outcomes in their clinical trials”.
The new division was an amalgam of UBC’s existing Clinical Technologies Group and Specialty Clinical Services business that promised to leverage a “seamless integration of science, technology and operational excellence” in the service of optimising research and development efforts. The combined operation claimed over 13 years’ experience working on more than 1,100 clinical trials across 47 therapeutic areas.
Medco acquired UBC in September 2010 for around US$730 million in cash, saying the deal would extend its core capabilities in data analytics, consistent with the company’s broader strategy to ‘make medicine smarter’ by gathering in-market evidence on product safety and effectiveness, risk management and economic outcomes.
Global capability
According to Jeff Albrecht, founder and president of Arrowhead Electronic Healthcare, joining Bracket will enable Arrowhead to “increase our global operations capability with a proven leader in the specialty clinical trials industry”.
Achieving successful ePRO solutions calls for “the sophisticated integration of science, technology and timely delivery of devices and Internet-based software worldwide –requirements which leverage Bracket’s expertise and can readily benefit from UBC’s outcomes research and post-marketing expertise”, added Bracket division head Cathe Spear.
