The largest locally-owned central European contract research organization, Poland’s Kiecana, has acquired its Czech partner, Dux Consulting. Dux has carried out 150 trials in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. Together, the two companies will have over 100 employees. Here’s the news release.

The FDA completed a meta-analysis of 199 anti-epileptic trials, and found a doubled risk of suicidality vs. placebo that can emerge as early as a week after treatment begins. Here’s the agency’s statement.

Medpace, a contract research organization, announced the appointment of Jim Wei, as director of clinical pharmacology. Prior to joining Medpace, Wei was a senior reviewer in the office of clinical pharmacology at the FDA.  His current duties includes consulting with sponsors on their clinical trial programs. August Troendle, chief executive officer, Medpace, said: “Jim’s clinical pharmacology expertise, particularly for the cardio-metabolic field, is a good fit for our company based on our therapeutic focus. He will be invaluable to our clients who need assistance with strategy and execution for their clinical development programs.”

LAB Research, a preclinical contract research organization, has raised $21.1 million from the National Bank of Canada Health Group. Luc Mainville, president and chief executive officer of LAB Research, said: “The financing will provide us with the required capital to complete the expansion of our Canadian operations in accordance with the previously announced timelines. As we focus on delivering the added capacity in Canada to accelerate revenue growth in the current fiscal year, we are increasing our efforts to maximize utilization of our newly created capacity in Europe.”

Notal Vision, a medical device company in Israel, selected the electronic data capture system of TrialStat. Its web-based software, Clinical Analytics (CA), will be used on a Phase II device trial in Israel and the U.S. Notal Vision selected TrialStat for its on-demand flexibility, its ability to attach images to case report forms, and easy linkability between the EDC software and Notal Vision’s devices. Miri Sani, VP of clinical and regulatory affairs at Notal Vision, said: “TrialStat was unique among EDC vendors in their capacity to provide an integrated image attachment solution that allowed us to quickly deploy our study. Our ability to use a flexible on-demand EDC solution that easily integrated with our management of trial data underscores CA’s robust scalability and innovative image-based tools.”

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