Business and People Update February 2009

People

Graham Belgrave• As an active member of ICR (Bourne End, UK) for more than 20 years and a clinical research consultant for Ipsen Ltd (Slough, UK), Graham Belgrave has been recognized as the 100th ICR Chartered Scientist.

Megan Sturm

• Praxis (Nashville, TN) has added Megan Sturm to its staff as the new business development manager, where she will oversee the company's activities in its Northeast United States and Southern California areas.

Emma Clayton

• With more than 10 years of conference and exhibition management experience, Emma Clayton has become ICR's (Bourne End, UK) new conference project manager.

• Covance (Princeton, NJ) has made several executive appointments, including Glynis Neagle, MD, as vice president for medical affairs; Robert Bader, PharmD, as director for product safety services; and Thomas Noto as vice president for regulatory affairs.

Glynis Neagle

• Richard Walovitch is WorldCare's (Boston, MA) new chief medical officer. He will bring with him over 20 years of management experience in preclinical and clinical development for therapeutics and diagnostics.

• Hans-Georg Eichler, MD, senior medical officer for the EMEA, has become the first non-U.S. regulatory liaison to the Clinical Trials Transformation Initiative Executive Committee. Dr. Eichler will fill the recently created nonvoting position.

Alliances

• Parexel (Boston, MA) clients now have access to more than 800 investigator sites in 40 countries that are dedicated to acute stroke treatment and Phase II–IV stroke-related clinical studies as a result of its recent alliance with Safe Implementation of Treatments in Stroke (SITS) International.

• New York University School of Medicine has entered into a three-year contract with C-TASC (Baltimore, MD) that requires the company to provide data management software and services, including the implementation of its StudyCTMS clinical trials management software.

• The University of Kansas Medical Center has signed an agreement with Velos (Fremont, CA) that allows the University to implement Velos eResearch over a two-year period. The intent is to provide medical researchers with a support system for regulatory, administrative, financial, and clinical information needs.

• Pfizer (New York, NY) has opted to utilize Exco InTouch's (Essex, UK) text messaging technology, ATLAS, to better maintain patient communication across Belgium, Singapore, and the United States throughout the lifetime of a clinical trial.

Company News

• After the success of its pilot study, Exco InTouch (Essex, UK) is engaging in its full mobile phone EDC study utilizing the Western Ontario and McMaster Osteoarthritis (WOMAC) NRS 3.1 index. The goal is to further comparisons between the effectiveness of patient self-reported outcome questionnaires on paper and those completed with a mobile phone.

• After completing a brand and identity audit, TRAC (Camborne, Cornwall) is unveiling its new identity with changes ranging from the company's signage and letterheads to its new Web site and exhibition stands.

• Almac (Yardley, PA) is celebrating reaching its 20th year, in which it now employs 1100 individuals across three locations, including the UK, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina. The company has also recently expanded its U.S. headquarters.

• Adding to its member benefits, ACRP (Alexandria, VA) has launched several new services to expand its online community, including an interactive member directory, a resource library, an interactive online encyclopedia and glossary, and eGroups.

• Marking the first time a major pharmaceutical company has agreed to publicly share anonymous data from a drug safety trial, Pfizer (New York, NY) will contribute electrocardiographic data to the University of Rochester Medical Center in an attempt to help researchers develop new methods to ensure safety of experimental drugs.