DSG, a provider of electronic data capture, has helped an unidentified sponsor of clinical research to integrate molecular diagnostic assays in clinical research. The news release says the company's system facilitates more immediate access to the operational aspects of trials and a 30 percent savings in management costs.

SRA International won the lead supplier role on 5-year, $98 million contract to improve the FDA inspection process. Here’s an article.

Quintiles named Lalit Pai as senior VP, global data management. He joined the contract research organization in 2003 and helped to develop the company's operation in India. He also worked on Quintiles offerings for interactive voice response and cardiac safety. "Lalit will lead the data integration initiatives that are giving our customers timely access to accurate data so they can make better decisions faster,” said Paula Brown Stafford, executive VP, integrated clinical services. “He will combine the talents of our 1,600-person global data management organization with new technology and innovative processes to steer customers through the constantly changing landscape of the biopharmaceutical industry."

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Clinipace recruited two new senior executives. The new CFO is Bud Owen; in previous roles outside clinical research, he helped shepherd 30 corporate merger transactions with a total value of $1 billion. Daryl Porter, the new CTO, spent 18 years at Oracle. Here’s a release and a ClinPage article on the firm.

Phase Forward announced a new version of its Empirica Signal product for drug safety signal detection. One feature is an improved issue-resolution center within the software. Here's a release.

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Johnson & Johnson invariably lands near the top of lists of the most-admired companies in the U.S. But the firm appears to be dropping from the lofty heights of the immortals. Earlier this month, the company was hit by a U.S. Dept. of Justice probe into kickbacks involving marketing-driven clinical projects that never took place. And in a separate problem, the FDA is criticizing the firm for two years of indifference to problems with a contaminated Tylenol manufacturing plant.

EMEA regulators have withdrawn sibutramine, an Abbott diet pill. (In the U.S., the drug is known as Meredia.) The FDA has issued a series of safety advisories for the product, but allowed it to remain on the market. Here’s a release from the European authorities.

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