Quintiles ($Q) is lending its research and analytics expertise to the Muscular Dystrophy Association, signing a deal to develop a massive registry of patient data that could help investigators develop new therapies.
Under the deal, Quintiles plans to profile patients around the country over the next three years, creating a network that will allow researchers to study the natural history of muscular dystrophy and related diseases, examine practice patterns, and inform care guidelines, the company said. Dubbed the U.S. Neuromuscular Disease Registry, the data trove will start with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Becker muscular dystrophy, Duchene muscular dystrophy and spinal muscular atrophy, moving on to other diseases by 2016.
By organizing the resulting data on a common format, Quintiles will help MDA cut through unwieldy, incomplete information and speed up research on new treatments, late-phase President Richard Gliklich said.
"Patient registries are an increasingly important component of real-world evidence development for understanding the cause of disease and identifying effective treatments," Gliklich said in a statement. "In designing the U.S. Neuromuscular Disease Registry, our goal is to create a research and collaboration platform that will enable physicians, patients, caregivers and others involved in MDA's mission to collaborate to advance new treatments for patients."
For Quintiles, the deal is a change of pace from its more common work with drug developers, but the CRO has plenty of experience gathering real-world patient data through Quintiles Outcome, the company's late-phase division.
The CRO is expecting between 3.8% and 5.2% revenue growth on the year, eyeing up to $3.8 billion for 2013.
- read the announcement