PharmaPros teams up with Soltex, extends pharma reach

PharmaPros has found a new route to deliver its software for managing clinical trials data into the hands of drug developers. The firm has struck a strategic partnership with Soltex Consulting, which will now offer PharmaPros' technology as part of its set of tech tools it can provide clients to improve clinical trials practices.

FierceBiotech IT featured PharmaPros among its "5 emerging eClinical firms to watch" this spring, and one of the noted hurdles that the firm faced is getting developers to warm up to its proprietary software, Dataflow Manager, which is designed to give them, among other things, a unified view of information from disparate systems that store clinical trials data. On that front, Soltex can help the Cambridge, MA-based software firm. And it's worth pointing out the Soltex co-founder Doug Bain is a former VP at electronic data capture heavyweight Medidata Solutions ($MDSO) and has contacts at medium and large pharmas around the world.

PharmaPros has made some inroads in picking up clients that are interested in rethinking their approaches to R&D. One solid example from the firm's customer roster is Biogen Idec ($BIIB), which has been refocusing its pipeline over the past year and taken a variety of new approaches to usher drugs toward the market more efficiently. Yet with a relatively small staff, which totaled 16 full-timers in May, PharmaPros is obviously looking to partners to aid the firm in its hunt for additional customers.

"The type of clients that our companies [PharmaPros and Soltex] work with are more likely to be those that are looking to change the old ways of working in operational silos with disconnected systems," Brion Regan, head of strategic development at PharmaPros, told FierceBiotech IT. "Hence, the partnership is a natural fit for us to meet both of those needs, and to compliment one another's strengths."

- here's the release

Special Report: PharmaPros--5 emerging eClinical firms to watch