Omnicare Clinical Research appointed Steven Pashko to senior VP of global late phase and pharmacovigilance. Pashko oversees the segment of the company’s peri-approval and geriatrics unit dedicated to Phase IIIb and IV trials. Prior to joining Omnicare, Pashko held the position of VP, scientific affairs for ICON. “Steve has conducted an extraordinarily diverse group of studies, including epidemiological, survey, medical record review, outcomes, pharmacoeconomic, benchmarking, medical claims and those using public use data sets,” said Dale Evans, president and CEO, Omnicare. “He understands how study operations and objectives must intertwine in order to successfully achieve the original project goals.”

Is the Apple iPhone a toy? This Business Week article says that unresolved reliability issues with the device or its cellular network could limit its adoption by corporate users.

CogState signed a contract with an international pharmaceutical company to provide its computerized cognitive testing technology and associated services for use in a Phase III schizophrenia study. Cognition will be a co-primary endpoint in the large Phase III study, which will be conducted in over 70 sites and seven languages. CogState’s chief scientific officer, Paul Maruff, commented: “CogState was selected from among its competitors because of the ability to successfully apply the CogState systems across different cultures and different languages.” The Phase III study will generate in excess of $1 million in revenue. CogState also announced that an additional eight contracts have been signed since 1 July 2008, taking the total to nine contracts signed with a combined value of approximately $2.3 million. Here’s the release.

Jim Walker, CEO and chairman of Octagon Research Solutions, announced a webinar entitled “Data Validation: Going Beyond Standard Checks.” Date: August 21, 2008 at 11:00 a.m. EDT. The session will be co-presented by two of Octagon’s experts: Dave Evans, CIO, and Anthony Chow, manager, data integration and standardization in clinical data operations. Evans and Chow will explain data validation and why it is so important in the evolving electronic submission environment. The presenters will review Octagon’s three-tiered approach to data validation that offers flexibility and enables clients to leverage Octagon’s expertise to improve data integrity.

Encorium Group announced the signing of $3.5 million of new contracts. These contracts, which cover clinical trials in the field of vaccines and infectious diseases, will be conducted in multiple European countries. Services include regulatory submissions, project management, and field monitoring. Revenue recognition will begin in the current quarter with the remainder expected to occur on a proportional performance basis as services are performed on each project. Kenneth Borow, Encorium Group’s president and chief medical and strategic development officer, stated: “With the signing of these contracts, Encorium has announced approximately $13.5 million of new business during the past three weeks. In aggregate, these new contracts represent both repeat and new client business and cover a wide array of therapeutic areas. Encorium will provide clinical trial services for these studies on three continents including North America, Europe, and South America.” Here’s the release.

Ricerca Biosciences announced the addition of Desmond Cave as business development director in Europe. Cave will be based in the UK and will focus on selling the full spectrum of Ricerca’s discovery and preclinical services to the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries. “We are thrilled to bring Desmond onto our business development team. Ricerca is the only CRO focused on the early stages of drug development offering true IP to IND capabilities,” said Mark Crane, VP, business development. “The combination of Desmond’s extensive background in this area, along with our capabilities, should prove to be beneficial in the European marketplace.” Here’s the release.

etrials reported worsening financial results. Its quarterly loss rose by 67 percent, to $2.2 million. Revenues dropped 38 percent, to $4.3 million. The company has $14 million in cash. There was better news about the future: 35 new contracts for the period, including 29 contracts with seven existing clients and six contracts with two new clients. “Increases in the backlog of contracts and an expanded pipeline of contracts point to improved revenue growth in 2009,” said Chuck Piccirillo, interim CEO. Here’s the financial statement.

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