SAFE-BioPharma and the Clinical Data Interchange Standards Consortium (CDISC) have announced they will collaborate to advance the electronic exchange of information across the global biopharmaceutical and health care communities. Specifically, the two groups are developing a specification to enable the CDISC operational data model (ODM) to accept SAFE digital signatures…more...

Quintiles will double the size of a regional headquarters in Singapore and raise its profile in Asia. “Quintiles is the largest and fastest growing clinical development group in Asia,” said Dennis Gillings, chairman and CEO. “Since entering the region in the 1990s, we have built a strong staff of 2,800…more...

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…more...

Prostate-specific antigen (PSA) screening may be complicated by aspirin and other pain relievers. So says Reuters. A recent study of 1,319 men suggests men taking painkillers had 10 percent lower PSA levels. With eyes wide, the Wall Street Journal medical blog has discovered ... electronic data capture (EDC). Which is…more...

Praxis released a new version of its patient recruitment software, with enhanced views and reports available via an internet portal. Says the company: “PraxisDirect 2.0 collects Praxis pre-qualified candidate data through the centralized recruitment center, as well as integrates data from sponsors IVRS/CTMS systems.” Here’s a release. MDS Pharma reported…more...

Bridge Laboratories announced that the FDA accepted data submitted from its Beijing facility on behalf of a U.S. biotech client. The Good Laboratory Practices (GLP) nonhuman primate toxicology data was submitted last month as part of an IND package. Bridge’s Beijing facility was built to conduct GLP studies in support…more...

William Harvey Research, a UK-based contract research organization (CRO) announced discussions with three leading Indian pharmaceutical companies for joint drug research and collaborations. “We are looking at drug research alliances in India and talking to three major Indian companies that are developing new drugs. However, it is too early to…more...

Forbes says direct-to-consumer drug ads may not work. (This story is based on a forthcoming article in the British Medical Journal.) “For two drugs,” Forbes writes, “Enbrel and Nasonex, the $194 million and $235 million advertising campaigns had no effect whatsoever. Prescription patterns in both English-speaking Canada and Quebec were…more...

invivodata was included on Pittsburgh Business Times’ “Pittsburgh 100” list of the region’s fastest-growing private companies. Honored at an awards program at the Duquesne Club in downtown Pittsburgh on August 21, invivodata was ranked the tenth fastest-growing technology company and number 43 overall on the list of 100, based on…more...

Bio-Imaging Technologies put Adeoye Olukotun on its board of directors. Olukotun is the co-founder and chief medical officer of VIA Pharmaceuticals, a publicly traded biotechnology company focused on the treatment of cardiovascular disease based in San Francisco, California. “We are very pleased to have Oye join our board of directors,”…more...