When trial investigator network DrugDev bought CFS Clinical in October, the company said it was the first in a series of acquisitions designed to expand its offerings. Eight months later DrugDev has made its second deal, with the focus shifting to adding the "technological glue" that will tie its acquired tools together.
The latest takeover sees Newton, MA-based TrialNetworks become part of DrugDev. TrialNetworks runs a suite of apps designed to help with starting, enrolling, running and closing clinical trials. While DrugDev is interested in the individual training and communications tools offered by TrialNetworks, the platform as a whole--and its ability to support a suite of tools--was a major motivation for the acquisition.
"We realized we need a consistent front end. [TrialNetworks] will be system that will glue together all of the bits of technology that we acquire," DrugDev CEO Ibraheem Mahmood told Clinical Informatics News. Some of the companies DrugDev works with are already familiar with the TrialNetworks platform. Merck ($MRK) worked with DrugDev on the investigator databank used by Eli Lilly ($LLY), Johnson & Johnson ($JNJ), Novartis ($NVS) and Pfizer ($PFE), and is a TrialNetworks client too.
Merck spoke favorably of TrialNetworks' platform after using it on two studies covering 8 sites and more than 1,000 users last year. Joining DrugDev will help TrialNetworks increase use of the platform while also adding new capabilities. Since securing a $50 million investment from Invesco Perpetual last year, DrugDev has set about expanding its software suite through acquisition, a strategy that should lead to more apps being added to TrialNetworks' platform.
- read the Clinical Informatics News article
- here's the press release