BioClinica buys pharmacovigilance outfit to continue evolution

John Hubbard

BioClinica is continuing the rapid evolution that began 18 months ago when its new owners merged it with CCBR-SYNARC. The latest step in the process is the buyout of Synowledge, a provider of pharmacovigilance and regulatory affairs services and accompanying IT support.

Acquiring Synowledge gives BioClinica a foothold in the market for drug safety services, a field that is tipped to grow in the coming years as regulators and drug developers alike tap into new tools to collect and mine data. CROs and business process outsourcing providers are already scrapping with smaller players such as Synowledge for the emerging sector, but BioClinica sees value in entering the fray through an acquisition. 

"This acquisition extends BioClinica's solutions into an important new area for our customers," BioClinica CEO John Hubbard said in a statement. "Synowledge is a highly regarded provider that biopharmaceutical corporations trust to manage the critical process of monitoring and reporting adverse drug events." BioClinica will now slot Synowledge's 500-person operation into its eClinical unit and put the acquired company's founder in charge of global safety and regulatory solutions.

The acquisition moves BioClinica further away from its initial focus on medical imaging and gives it another position in a field traditionally fought over by large CROs and niche speciality players. This shift, which began years ago with the addition of eClinical operations, has gathered pace in the 18 months since BioClinica was taken private and merged with CCBR-SYNARC. Synowledge is the third company to be acquired by BioClinica over that period. 

- read the release