YARDLEY, PA--(Marketwire - April 23, 2009) - Almac Clinical Technologies and PHT Corporation
announced a formal alliance today to improve clinical trial productivity
through a variety of education initiatives and data integration efforts
that will reduce clinical trial site burdens while improving study data
collection and reporting.
As part of their alliance activities, PHT and Almac have agreed to provide
consultation with clinical trial sponsors on the difficult question of
choosing the appropriate technology for studies involving electronic
patient-reported outcomes (ePRO). Currently, sponsors face challenges
relating to the choice of using either a handheld device or an interactive
voice or Web response system to capture ePRO data in their trials. To help
clients better understand this issue, PHT and Almac will offer joint
consultation with clients upon request and conduct several workshops and
panel sessions on this topic at industry events in 2009-10.
The first joint data initiative involves integration of Almac's patient
screening and randomization data with PHT's handheld devices for ePRO
studies. Sponsors who choose to work with both Almac and PHT will be
afforded the opportunity to have real-time data feeds from Almac's
industry-leading integrated IVR/IWR technology directly into PHT's
market-leading handheld ePRO product suite, the LogPad® and SitePad™
Systems. Almac will send PHT real-time automated feeds whenever a patient
is screened and randomized, improving data quality for sponsors and
increasing clinical trial sites' productivity. The integration will remove
the need for sites to manually enter in the same information provided by
the Almac IVR system into the LogPad, thereby reducing data entry errors
that can be costly to remediate. Future efforts will involve deeper data
integration, including seamless integration between Almac's study data with
that collected by PHT and EDC vendors. Both Almac and PHT's advanced
technology offerings consistently integrate with other systems using CDISC
standards.
Philip Lee, CEO of PHT, comments about the benefits that the alliance will
provide to clients. "Our customers are constantly looking for ways to
integrate multiple streams of eClinical data and reduce the data entry
burden on sites. Our partnership with Almac offers added value for both
sponsors and sites with one less data source to reconcile and the removal
of a manual data entry step. Together, PHT and Almac are helping sponsors
and sites remove time-consuming data cleaning tasks to focus on what they
care about most -- the health and safety of patients and conducting
rigorous scientific research."
Almac Clinical Technologies' President Jim Murphy believes that deeper
integration of data between best-of-breed technology vendors offers
tremendous benefits for sponsors. "Obtaining the highest quality data from
vendors and sites is the primary need of pharmaceutical study sponsors.
This alliance satisfies that need by integrating data from the highest
quality clinical technology companies. The Almac/PHT alliance offers
sponsors an opportunity to resist compromising data quality and trading off
high quality technology or customer service to work with one vendor who
offers all technologies for data collection, but is not best-of-breed in
all or any of them."
PHT and Almac plan to launch their integrated offering by mid-2009. Further
details about the alliance and joint initiatives are available by
contacting either PHT or Almac Clinical Technologies.
Both Almac and PHT will be exhibiting at next week's Partnerships with
CRO's Conference; come visit them for more information at Booth's 317 and
520.
About PHT
PHT is the market-leading provider of electronic patient reported outcome
(ePRO) solutions used in more than 390 clinical trials by 100
biopharmaceutical clients. The proven LogPad® System and revolutionary
SitePad™ Tablet deliver the voice of the patient, in 80 languages, from
homes and sites in 60 countries around the world. By capturing high-quality
and time-stamped assessments with minimal respondent burden, trial sponsors
are able to run smaller and more conclusive clinical research programs
resulting in significant R&D cost savings. Real-time study management
through PHT StudyWorks™ features eClinical data integration, standard
and custom data summaries for compliance and enrollment, SafetyPRO™
email alerts, and the industry's premier study archive. Patient experiences
captured firsthand by PHT's ePRO Product Suite have been used successfully
in at least 11 NDA submissions and seven approvals to date. For more
information, review interactive product demonstrations at the award-winning
www.phtcorp.com
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; EDC for electronic
case report form data collection; electronic patient reported outcomes data
collection; and Web drug reconciliation. Almac's technologies have been
deployed in over 1300 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/EDC), 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 2,400 individuals and is headquartered in
Craigavon, Northern Ireland. US operations are based in Pennsylvania, North
Carolina and California. Construction of the company's new $112m North
American Headquarters started in July 08 and is expected to be completed
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.
