CRO

Synteract boosts geographical reach with biometrics CRO buy

Synteract has boosted its reach into the Asia-Pacific region and South Africa after snapping up a specialty biometrics CRO.

The Research Triangle Park, North Carolina-based CRO has bought up Clindata’s human health biometrics division to "meet market demand for more adaptable biometrics services solutions.”

It also helps spread its footprint into the Asia-Pacific region and Africa, and offers another biometrics services hub it says will complement those it operates in Europe and the U.S.

Clindata, with offices in Bloemfontein, South Africa, and Colombo, Sri Lanka, is a biometrics CRO offering biostatistics, programming and data management services across all phases of drug development.

Its veterinary division will continue to operate under the Clindata name and independently from Synteract, but the human health biometrics division will be subsumed into its new parent company.

“Like Synteract, Clindata is known for high quality service delivery, collaboration, agility and expertise of its teams,” says Synteract CEO Steve Powell. “Innovative changes in biometrics are transforming the ways in which clinical study data is collected, integrated and analyzed. Rich patient data gives researchers insights into disease progression and response to therapy in ways we have not seen before.”

The company did not disclose financial details of the deal.

The CRO has had a busy few years, snapping up specialty pediatric CRO KinderPharm and contract researcher Cu-Tech in the past two years.

In September last year, it also hired Derek Ansel, who became its new director of rare and orphan disease drug development and comes from rival CRO PRA Health.

He was joined by AstraZeneca veteran Hassan Aly, M.D., Ph.D., who was hired as its senior medical director, specifically working on Synteract’s oncology center of development.

Clindata CEO Theo Erasmus added: “With our combined biometrics capabilities, clients will benefit from a complete service offering incorporating all data components from research, advice on study design, document planning to PK analyses and results interpretation, as well as global capabilities, all provided by one integrated CRO. We are glad to be joining Synteract and creating a world class delivery team.”

Editor's note: This story was updated to correct the company name to Synteract, rather than SynteractHCR as previously stated, and remove the name of an employee no longer with the company. The image was also changed to remove an outdated company facility.