Quintiles backs away from possible ClinPhone bid

After flirting with the idea of making a competing offer for ClinPhone, Quintiles Transnational has backed away from the table, giving Parexel a clear path to completing its planned acquisition. Parexel had offered $182 million to seal the deal, saying the bid had been accepted before Quintiles stepped in. The U.K.'s ClinPhone provides software to recruit patients and manage clinical trial data.

"It was worth taking a look," said Quintiles spokesman Dick Jones, who declined to elaborate on why Quintiles decided to back off of the deal. The company will focus now on developing in-house technology. Quintiles is in a joint venture with Thermo Fisher Scientific to develop technology to make trials less expensive.

- read the report from the News & Observer