DrugDev, an interactive network and data-sharing platform for doctors conducting clinical trials, has taken another step towards standardisation of the trial process by acquiring CFS Clinical, which specialises in site-payment and study-start-up solutions.
No financial terms were disclosed for the transaction, under which CFS Clinical will retain its brand name while operating as part of the DrugDev group.
Both US-based, the combined businesses create “a powerful offering in finding, engaging and paying investigators”, available both as a full-service business process and as Software as Service (SaaS) to clients in the pharmaceutical and contract-research sectors, the companies said.
CFS Clinical’s technology-enabled service platform supports DrugDev’s overall mission to ease the burden on clinical-trial investigators by standardising their interactions with sponsors and contract research organisations (CROs), they noted.
Major complaints
“Investigators around the world have two major complaints when it comes to pharmaceutical research,” commented DrugDev chairman Hugo Stephenson.
“They’d like better visibility into new trial opportunities, which our existing DrugDev network solves, and they’d like to avoid lengthy delays associated with payments they are owed, which we are now solving with CFS.”
In the longer term, the acquisition is “the first in a series” aimed at ushering in a standardised, collaborative environment for the clinical-trials process, “making it easier for doctors and drug developers to engage with each other virtually, and therefore reducing the cost of drug development by eliminating labor intensive processes”, DrugDev and CFS explained.
As things stand, the virtual clinical-trial space is “highly fragmented”, although the development of cloud-based technologies is making it a more realistic proposition, they added.
Global network
DrugDev’s network extends to more than 80,000 trial investigators in 93 countries. The company also hosts the global, cross-pharmaceutical Investigator Databank.
CFS Clinical’s solutions are used by sponsors and CROs, including eight of the top 20 pharmaceutical companies, to accelerate cycle times, manage compliance and risk, and to strengthen investigator relationships in clinical trials.
The two companies’ combined infrastructure “gives sponsors the ability to garner real–time feedback from investigators during the feasibility stages of a trial, rapidly select the right investigators who are best suited to run the trial, and finally engage with sites efficiently with high-speed site activation and expedited payments”, they said.
