Global pharmaceutical companies are increasingly turning to Indian vendors offering drug discovery research using newer techniques at much lower costs. Major drug discovery companies are realizing that the question is no longer whether to outsource or not, but one of finding the right partners. The latest publication from ValueNotes, a Pune-based research company, and Knowgenix, titled “Contract Research Opportunity for the Indian Pharmaceuticals Industry” expects contract research outsourcing to grow at a cumulative annual growth rate of 23.6 percent per year until 2010. Of the various segments in contract research, outsourcing of drug discovery research is slated to show the highest CAGR of 26% per annum. These estimates too are conservative, as several of the top Indian outsourcing vendors are pursuing some combination of international expansion and investment in new drug discovery programs in the product patent regime.

Technology firm DSG and Japanese contract research organization Acronet today announced a partnership to offer comprehensive electronic data capture (EDC) and data management services to the life sciences industry in Japan. Acronet Corporation is a leading Japanese CRO that provides clinical trial services including data analysis and management, clinical development monitoring, biostatistical analysis, and clinical IT systems. “We have been looking for the global EDC software vendor for partnership opportunities to serve the Japanese market, and we have found that DSG could provide the highly suitable EDC solution for the Japanese market. Our corporate philosophy and corporate cultures are also very closely aligned,” said Hitoshi Kamiya, director of business development at Acronet. We’ve asked for an interview with DSG, which has supported over 400 clinical trials for more than 300 sponsors.

bioMérieux, a leading international diagnostics group, is proud to announce that Christus Health has selected Stellara clinical intervention and patient monitoring software for St. Elizabeth Hospital in Beaumont, Texas. The Stellara system is a web-based application for knowledge-enriched, infectious disease-specific recommendations to clinicians. 

DataTrak, a clinical trial technology suite, reported that it has completed the first phase of enterprise transfer with a client that previously committed to standardize on DataTrak’s platform. The program empowers clients to remotely design and implement their clinical trials through the DataTrak’s global data center using an ASP (application service provider) delivery model. The ability of clients to become independent is facilitated by a parallel consulting push branded as eMerge. That team includes project managers, study designers, clinical experts and overall business consultants.

Avesthagen and Manipal Acunova have agreed to collaborate on providing their competencies in discovery, pre-clinical, clinical research including regulatory matters. Avesthagen is an Indian-based fully integrated systems biology company that works towards the convergence of food, pharma and population genetics leading to predictive preventive personalized healthcare. Manipal Acunova provide medical, clinical and project management capacities in clinical trials, lab management, data management and biostatistical services. This partnership will enable them to jointly provide a fully integrated platform from early discovery to filing approvals for new products. Avesthagen and Manipal Acunova will also collaborate in validation of Molecular Diagnostics kits and Product Co-development for delivering high quality, affordable and advanced diagnostic tests using molecular techniques to patients and healthcare industry. ClinPage met two top Manipal Acunova executives recently and wrote about another deal they put together with a Polish CRO.

Nextrials, a provider of electronic data capture, drug supply management and clinical trial management tools, unveiled a new standards-based electronic data interface for clinical trial patient recruitment and randomization. In partnership with Raining Data Corporation, Nextrials has developed the module for its award-winning platform, Prism. The system is designed to enable sponsors to tap disparate sources such as a hospital’s electronic health records (EHR) or patient records in other clinical trials to match subjects to study protocol criteria. Due to Prism’s tight integration with Raining Data’s TigerLogic Clinical Trials Data Services (CTDS), the PRT module eliminates the significant cost and inefficiencies associated with patient enrollment at study initiation. It is built on a native XML (eXtensible Markup Language) platform that accepts clinical data in any format and transforms it into the new industry standard, the Clinical Data Interchange Standards Consortium’s (CDISC) Operational Data Model (ODM).

The Food and Drug Administration and the National Institutes of Health seek information on forming a public/private partnership to establish and maintain a common electronic platform for exchanging research data collected during clinical trials and submitting, receiving and managing regulatory product information. That approach would enhance the efficiency of exchanging information about medical products among interested parties and increase their safety and effectiveness. NIH is particularly interested in an interface for drug development and research.

MedQuist, a provider of medical transcription outsourcing and clinical documentation workflow solutions, announces the release of version 1.1 of its voice capture platform, DocQment Ovation. This latest software release gives HIM professionals superior management of their medical documentation when using outsourced transcription service providers. Key enhancements with version 1.1 include: new reporting capabilities; improved QA/QC controls and workflow options; enhanced functionality of the Ovation Enterprise Workstation; a quick view of document lists; and streamlined dashboard view to manage users, voice files and documents.

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