Business and News Update October 2012

People

• Theorem Clinical Research (King of Prussia, PA) has named Shannon Gordon as Vice President of Global Project Management. Gordon is responsible for the oversight of project management activities including quality deliverables, staff, project status, and budget oversight in more than 10 countries.

Shannon Gordon

• DIA (Horsham, PA) announced the appointment of Ling Su, PhD, as President of the DIA Board of Directors. Su is Senior Vice President and Head of Development Greater China Region of Beijing, Novartis Pharma Co., Ltd.

Ling Su, PhD

• ClinPharm Consulting, LLC (Research Triangle Park, NC) announced the addition of David Y. Mitchell, PhD, to its team. Mitchell adds to ClinPharm's areas of PK and clinical pharmacology, with regulatory affairs, medical writing, protocol development, and strategic planning services to help navigate client companies down the path to marketing approval.

David Y. Mitchell, PhD

• Astellas Pharma Europe, Ltd., (Staines, England) the European subsidiary of Tokyo-based Astellas Pharma, Inc., has appointed Susan Wood, PhD, as Senior Director, Market Access.

Susan Wood, PhD

Acquisitions

• The Ashfield Group's (Ivyland, PA) parent company United Drug PLC announced an agreement to acquire Pharmexx, a global contract sales organization, from Celesio AG.

• IMS Health (Parsippany, NJ) has acquired TTC, a Philadelphia-based benchmarking solutions and analytics company that helps life sciences organizations around the world plan for and negotiate the costs of clinical trials.

Alliances

• OmniComm Systems, Inc. (Fort Lauderdale, FL) announced that its eClinical suite of applications has been licensed by Cytochroma Inc. for two Phase III studies. Both of these 30-site, Phase III studies are evaluating the efficacy and safety of CTAP101 capsules to treat secondary hyperparathyroidism in subjects with stage 3 chronic kidney disease and vitamin D insufficiency.

Awards

• ERT (Pittsburgh, PA) a global technology-driven provider of health outcomes services to biopharmaceutical organizations, medical device companies, and CROs, has been recognized by the Pittsburgh Technology Council in its 2012 Tech 50 Awards. ERT has been named a Life Sciences category finalist in the annual awards program, which honors high-growth companies in southwestern Pennsylvania's technology sector.

Company News

• Catalina Health, (St. Petersburg, FL) along with other healthcare partners, launched a quality improvement initiative with the goal of providing patients clearer medication information when they pick up prescriptions at the pharmacy. Catalina Health and other healthcare partners will disseminate newly-designed patient medication information (PMI) to patients filling prescriptions at participating pharmacies.

• The Ashfield Group (Ivyland, PA) announced the launch of a new office and new business in Tokyo, Japan. Ashfield KK delivers outsourced contract services to the pharmaceutical and healthcare sectors.

Industry News

• The National Institutes of Health/National Cancer Institute (NCI), (Reston, VA) has awarded a five-year research project grant to the Universities of Iowa, Pennsylvania, and Washington. The project aims to identify harmonized reconstruction parameters for each currently-produced positron emission tomography/computer tomography scanner for use in clinical trials. The Society of Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging's (SNMMI) Clinical Trials Network will serve as an administrative coordinating body for the Image Reconstruction Harmonization Grant.

New Facilities

• Phlexglobal, (Amersham, UK) has expanded its document management facilities with the opening of a new records center in Chesham, Buckinghamshire, UK.