Texas-based Pharm-Olam International said net service revenue grew by 47 percent for the first half of 2008. The private company didn’t release any dollar amounts. Said Iain Gordon, VP of global business development: “We are on track for another year of record sales. We have the largest global spread of any CRO of a comparable size. This local expertise has enabled us to deliver fast patient recruitment and fast regulatory approval that ensures our reputation for timely delivery.” During the past two years, Pharm-Olam recruited patients in over 25 countries, including India, Poland, Serbia, Mexico, USA and Romania.

The president and CEO of Bio-Imaging Technologies, Mark Weinstein, is scheduled to present at Baird’s 2008 Small Cap Health Care Conference at 2:10 p.m. (EDT) today, September 10, 2008. A live webcast of the presentation will be accessible online and available for 90 days. Here’s the release.

Parexel International briefed Wall Street . d9A2t49mkex Overall revenues could increase by $10 million for the quarter and as much as $30 million for the next fiscal year, partly thanks to operating efficiencies and currency fluctuations. Next year, Parexel estimates, the recently-acquired ClinPhone should contribute $95-$105 million in revenue. Parexel said it expects to find cost savings from the purchase, but is first trying to build the best teams it can using staffers from both companies. Executives used the term “eclinical” repeatedly on the call. Said chairman and CEO Josef von Rickenbach: “Clinical research is primarily about data and information. It is not surprising that applying sophisticated IT can provide many benefits to the clinical process.”

NeuroDiscovery announced that a subsidiary, NeuroSolutions, has signed a deal with an unidentified pharmaceutical firm. The contract is worth $140,000 and is expected to take eight months to complete. NeuroSolutions will use its specialist pharmacology and electrophysiology expertise to test specific compounds from the client’s compound library. David Spanswick, chief scientific officer of NeuroSolutions, commented, “Our experience and integrated research capabilities set us apart from other contract research organizations (CROs) in the electrophysiology space.”

A Susquehanna research analyst began coverage of WuXi, the Chinese contract research organization. The research note says: “WuXi is the largest and first public preclinical contract research organization (CRO) in China, providing research and manufacturing services that support the product development initiatives of the global life sciences industry. We focused the discussions of this initiation on understanding and projecting the margins, an area that has been often scrutinized but not well understood in the context of WuXi’s overall growth, as well as issues key to WuXi’s short- and long-term growth: 1) revenue contribution and manufacturing capacity impact of the VRTX commercial production; 2) upcoming GLP tox service in China; and 3) the addressable market for WuXi and key trends in China’s CRO market.” Here’s the release.

A conference in Shanghai on November 9-11 addresses China’s booming clinical development industry. The China Trials 2008: Global Clinical Development Summit will be one of the first such gatherings of clinical experts. Small and emerging biotech and pharma companies that have successfully outsourced trials to China will share strategies on selecting Chinese CROs, as well as their experiences with the quality and acceptability of submitting the data to western regulatory authorities. Here’s the release.

Rho won a six-year contract worth $38.9 million from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases to provide biostatistical, data management and safety services to the Immune Tolerance Network (ITN). Herman Mitchell from Rho will lead the effort. Here’s an article.

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