A commercial North Carolina institutional review board (IRB), Copernicus Group IRB, has received ISO 9001 certification. The company has a paperless system to manage clinical trial forms. “To our knowledge, CGIRB is the only central IRB that has achieved this certification. It is further evidence to our clients and the subjects of research studies that the quality of our services and our strong business practices are unsurpassed,” said Bruce Tomason, CEO. Here's a release.

There's a split between early- and late-phase contract research organizations (CROs), according to this wire service article. Some small sponsors and biotechnology firms are delaying the launch of projects, analysts say, favoring late-phase specialists.

Health Decisions, a technology-oriented contract research organization, appointed a new chief technology officer, Bryan Minihan. He'll be working on the company's system that, among other features, supports adaptive clinical trials. Minihan previously worked at GSK, Accenture, Intuit, and Cisco. “I’m excited to be a part of agile clinical development and its mission to fulfill the most basic need of the drug development industry: immediate access to the most accurate, actionable information to make clinical studies safer and more efficient," he said. Here's a release.

PhRMA has chosen someone to follow former head Billy Tauzin, who is now an advisor to the lobbying group. Starting on September 1, John Castellani will be PhRMA's new president and CEO. Castellani previously lead the Business Roundtable, an association of CEOs of large companies. Said Pfizer CEO Jeff Kindler: “At this critical moment, it’s important that we have the highest standard of leadership in this position. And we have that in John. John is the gold standard, and I’m extremely pleased that he will lead our team.” Here's the release.

Some Wall Street rumor mills speculate that the Oracle purchase of Phase Forward has run into difficulties, claiming there are 23 times as many "put" contracts outstanding as is typical. Here's a very brief news item.

Icon announced quarterly earnings. Net service revenues rose 1.7 percent to $224 million. Profits were essentially flat. The company said it was gratified by recent contract wins. "We are not expecting revenue growth to respond quickly to these awards, and as a result we now anticipate that the outcome for 2010 will be at the lower end of the guidance range given in February," CEO Peter Gray said in a release.

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