Medidata ($MDSO) is gaining steam in the market for clinical trials software, even though its first-quarter revenue came in just short of some analysts' expectations. It's been interesting to watch how Medidata fares with customers after Oracle ($ORCL) gobbled up its major rival Phase Forward in a $685 million buyout completed last summer.
New York-based Medidata, one of the top providers Web-based electronic data capture (EDC) software, said yesterday afternoon that it added 19 new customers in the first quarter. The company's revenue was up eight percent for the quarter to $40.8 million on strong application services revenue. But the firm's revenue came in shy of the $41.26 million that analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had projected, according to an RTT News report. Medidata said that it still expects its full year revenue for 2011 to be in the neighborhood of $180 million to $188 million.
Medidata CEO Tarek Sherif told analysts on a conference call yesterday that his company is taking advantage of a key competitor's integration-but he wasn't exactly naming names. "I heard concerns from key customers and CRO partners that our largest competitor is facing significant operational challenges as it looks to complete its integration," Sherif said, as quoted by Outsourcing-Pharma.com. The CEO later added: "Basically there's a transition underway and in any kind of transition like that it opens up the opportunity for customers to take a look at other technologies. We're pretty excited by those opportunities."
- here's the Medidata release
- check out the report from RTT News
- read Sherif's comments in Outsourcing-Pharma.com