YARDLEY, PA--(Marketwire - December 08, 2009) - Almac announced today a unique partnership with
FACIT.org for electronic distribution of the latter's
Patient-Reported-Outcomes (PRO) and Quality of Life (QOL) assessments. The
partnership agreement empowers Almac to use and validate leading FACT and
FACIT assessments through any and all electronic modalities, including
phone, web and handheld devices. As part of the agreement, Almac will also
leverage the translation services that FACIT.org provides in delivering
these instruments to patients worldwide.
FACIT questionnaires, including the notable Functional Assessment of Cancer
Therapy-General (FACT-G), have been used in hundreds of clinical trials for
oncology and other therapy areas and indications. The FACT-G (now in
Version 4) is a compilation of general questions divided into four primary
Quality of Life domains: Physical Well-Being, Social/Family Well-Being,
Emotional Well-Being, and Functional Well-Being. It is used widely with any
form of cancer, and has also been applied and validated in other chronic
illness conditions, such as HIV/AIDS and multiple sclerosis.
With this new partnership, Almac advances its goal of providing
pharmaceutical and biotech companies with a world-class solution for
Electronic-Patient-Reported-Outcomes (ePRO) using its patented IXR
technology. Almac's IXR platform seamlessly integrates various user
interfaces in the collection and processing of clinical trial data. By
utilizing its technology to deliver the FACT and FACIT assessments, Almac
will significantly broaden the potential populations for these already
widely-used patient assessments.
David Cella, Ph.D., President of Facit.org, comments: "We are excited about
the potential of our relationship with Almac Clinical Technologies.
Partnerships such as these help streamline the inclusion of valid
patient-reported-outcome tools into clinical trials efficiently and
accurately."
Jim Murphy, President of Almac Clinical Technologies, adds: "The licensing
agreement with FACIT.org allows Almac to further pursue our goal of
delivering high quality ePRO data to sponsors by combining world-class
patient assessments with state-of-the art technology that is user-friendly
and eases the burdens of patients in clinical trials."
The FACIT.org agreement is one piece of an evolving Almac strategy that
focuses on improving the patient's experience in clinical trials. It is
Almac's belief that reaching out to patients in the most convenient manner,
by utilizing the most user-friendly tools available, will help in patient
recruitment, retention and compliance in clinical trials, allowing more
successful and longer term relationships to develop between
biopharmaceutical companies and the patient community.
Dr. Joseph Bedford, Director of Marketing at Almac Clinical Technologies,
notes: "Almac understands that two of the greatest challenges in clinical
trials are recruiting/retaining patients and generating high quality data
for regulatory submission. The FACIT.org partnership helps us address both
challenges by giving Almac access to some of the most notable scales used
to gather PRO data and collecting it in a secure, user-friendly way that
assures data integrity and quality for our clients."
About FACIT.org:
FACIT.org manages the distribution and information regarding
administration, scoring and interpretation of the FACIT system of
questionnaires used for measuring health-related quality of life for people
with chronic illnesses. While oncology remains a major focus of the FACIT
system of questionnaires, the organization has also developed and
translated instruments for fatigue, treatment satisfaction, spiritual
well-being, HIV disease, multiple sclerosis, and other chronic conditions.
This accumulated work has produced over 750 unique questions in more than
60 languages that are routinely used in clinical trials and for other
purposes. FACIT.org's mission is to promote the use and application of
these measurements as a means of improving healthcare for chronic illnesses
worldwide.
About Almac Clinical Technologies:
Almac Clinical Technologies is a division of the Almac Group that
specializes in interactive technology and service solutions to increase the
quality and efficiency of the clinical trial process. Our solutions include
Interactive Voice and Web Response Systems (IXRS™) for patient
randomization, tracking and clinical supply management; electronic patient
reported outcomes data collection; and Web drug reconciliation. Almac's
technologies have been deployed in over 1400 clinical trials, incorporating
over 1.5 million patients in over 80 countries and more than 60 languages.
About Almac Group:
The Almac Group comprises five closely integrated divisions offering a
broad range of services from R&D, translational genomic services, API
manufacture, formulation development, clinical trial supply and technology
(IVRS & Web), to commercial-scale manufacture. Almac provides services to
more than 600 companies, including all the world leaders in the
pharmaceutical and biotech sectors.
The company employs over 2,500 individuals and is headquartered in
Craigavon, Northern Ireland. US operations are based in Pennsylvania, North
Carolina and California. Construction of the company's new $120m North
American Headquarters started in July 08 and is expected to be completed in
2010. Almac was awarded Northern Ireland's "Business of the Year" award in
2009.
For more information about the Almac Group, please visit www.almacgroup.com
or e-mail info@almacgroup.com.
