Ellen Morgan, president and CEO of Synteract, a contract research organization (CRO), won the Athena Pinnacle Award for an individual in services at the Athena International’s annual awards event, held on May 1. The Pinnacle Awards, given to four individuals and one company every year, recognize men and women who support the Athena vision of fostering personal and professional change through inclusion, risk-taking, education, recognition and diversity of thought in the San Diego business community. At Synteract, more than 70 percent of the employees are women, who head 9 of 15 key functional areas. Synteract’s co-founder and executive VP, Russell Holmes, said, “We couldn’t be more proud of Ellen. She really deserves this Athena award as she has personally mentored several women in this organization from entry-level positions to directorships.” Here’s the press release.

Pharm-Olam International (POI), a contract research organization, upgraded its legacy PBX system to a voice-over Internet protocol (VoIP) system that would better serve the company’s global communications needs. The results were nothing short of catastrophic. POI initially selected a local vendor to plan, develop and deploy a VoIP system, but it was immediately clear the solution was a bigger problem than the old PBX. “It was a total disaster. The system crashed virtually every day, voice quality was terrible, remote staff had connectivity issues, and the vendor had spent over six months trying to bring the system live in the UK office,” stated R. Michael Shassere, POI global director of IT. Then POI worked with premier VoIP solutions provider Taridium to resolve the system’s issues. Taridium brought the system up and made it operational in a few days—something the previous vendor had failed to do in months. “We were elated. Taridium has now installed its system in several of our worldwide sites so far, and we will have them do all the sites as time permits,” said Shassere. “We could not be happier.” Here’s the press release.

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Quintiles will acquire Eidetics, a privately held decision-analytics and market research consulting firm in Boston, as part of its expanding Quintiles Consulting division. The acquisition of Eidetics will strengthen Quintiles’ core consulting offerings in the areas of product development, commercialization and market access. “The addition of Eidetics to our Quintiles Consulting business will further strengthen our ability to provide our clients with distinctive, data-driven, strategic solutions to their toughest challenges throughout the product life cycle,” said Jay Norman, president, Quintiles Consulting. The transaction is contingent upon the completion of certain conditions of the purchase agreement. http://carolinanewswire.com/news/News.cgi?database=01news.db&command=viewone&id=3399&op=t” title=“Here’s the press release.”>Here’s the press release.

CRI Worldwide will open its Center for the Research of Pain Disorders, based at the company’s state-of-the-art clinical research facility at the Kirkbride Center in Philadelphia, PA. Daniel Gruener, a recognized expert in the areas of analgesic and neuropathic pain research will lead the Center for the Research of Pain Disorders. “The opening of our Center for the Research of Pain Disorders is a very exciting milestone for CRI as we continue our growth in the Central Nervous System space,” remarked Ken King, president and CEO. “The recent expansion of the Kirkbride Center provides the ideal setting to allow Dr. Gruener and his highly knowledgeable clinical staff to deepen CRI’s commitment to understanding chronic and acute pain, pain management, and to supporting the emerging technologies in these areas.” Here’s the press release.

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WuXi PharmaTech, a pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device research and development outsourcing company with operations in China and the United States, announced that it has postponed its proposed follow-on public stock offering. “In light of market conditions and the current trading price for our ADSs, our board has determined it is in the best interest of our shareholders to postpone the offering,” said Dr. Ge Li, chairman and CEO.

The U.S.-based MakroCare, a contract research organization (CRO) has opened a European office in Frankfurt, Germany. In order to cater to the growing needs of clients in Western Europe, MakroCare chose Frankfurt as its strategic European base.

Kendle said revenues rose 20 percent, profits 34 percent. Even so, Wall Street was disappointed. “Kendle’s results reflect strong and continued growth in net service revenues, new business awards and total business authorizations, all of which were record highs,” said Candace Kendle, chairman and CEO. “During the quarter we saw a continued shift in our revenue distribution outside North America, marking the ongoing success of our globalization efforts and enhanced competitive position.” Here’s a wire service story and the company’s news release.

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