4 Oct 2011 -- The Almac Group and Greenphire announced today that Almac’s Clinical Technologies business unit, the leading provider of IXRS® (Interactive Voice and Web Response) services relating to patient and drug supply management, has formed an exclusive alliance with Greenphire to offer joint services relating to patient payment administration for clinical trials. This new service improves current methods of manual patient payment management and alleviates administrative burden on personnel in biopharmaceutical companies and Contract Research Organizations (CROs), allowing them to focus on more study-specific responsibilities.
Greenphire has worked with Almac to seamlessly incorporate its ClinCard System, a market-leading patient payment management suite of technologies, with Almac’s IXRS® system, an integrated phone and web platform. This unique industry offering provides patients with direct and timely compensation via a branded debit card. After patients complete required study-related tasks and responsibilities (e.g. attending site visits), their debit card is automatically and immediately credited with the appropriate stipend or reimbursement amount.
The Almac-Greenphire alliance provides several benefits to biopharmaceutical companies. The integrated platform improves operational efficiency, decreases sponsor, site and CRO administrative burden, reduces payment administration costs and timelines, and increases site and patient satisfaction. Research indicates that compensation is one of several important factors that drive patient compliance and eagerness to participate in clinical trials.
Almac President, Jim Murphy comments on the alliance with Greenphire: “Our customers are increasingly looking to Almac to help them find ways of improving patient management and compliance during clinical trials. Partnering with Greenphire enhances Almac’s suite of patient-centric services by offering direct-to-patient payments to subjects enrolled in clinical trials. This new joint service allows Almac to more efficiently manage patient payments and tie them closely to key study milestones through our IXRS® technology.”
From Greenphire’s perspective, the strategic partnership with Almac establishes another integrated platform through which the ClinCard System delivers value to pharmaceutical, biotech, and medical device companies. Building on Greenphire’s prior integrations with leading web-based clinical platforms, the ClinCard System will be seamlessly customized to deliver, track, and report patient payments through Almac’s existing IXRS® workflow. As an alternative to manual, paper-based payment management processes, the ClinCard System offers real-time, secure, and easily accessible patient stipend and reimbursement payments.
Greenphire CEO, Sam Whitaker expressed his enthusiasm with the landmark Almac partnership, saying “Our strategic partnership is groundbreaking. Greenphire’s technology has had a significant impact on driving efficiency to all of the key organizations responsible for executing study operations. Our integrated functionality with Almac not only increases the value to Greenphire’s current ClinCard offering, but also drives clinical operational efficiencies which new clients could never have achieved in the past.”
Almac and Greenphire will be featuring a demo of their integrated services at upcoming conferences and trade shows in 2011-12.
The Almac Group provides a broad range of services from R&D, biomarker discovery and development, API manufacture, formulation development, clinical trial supply and IXRS® technology (IVRS/IWRS), 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 3,000 individuals and is headquartered in Craigavon, Northern Ireland. US operations are based in Pennsylvania, North Carolina and California. Almac has now moved into its new North American Headquarters located in Souderton PA.
Almac’s Clinical Technologies business unit specializes in interactive technology and service solutions to increase the quality and efficiency of clinical trials. Solutions include Interactive Voice and Web Response Systems (IXRS®) for patient randomization and drug assignment, patient and clinical supplies management, electronic-patient-reported-outcomes data collection, patient compliance, and Web drug reconciliation. Almac’s technologies have been deployed in over 1700 clinical trials, incorporating over 1.6 million patients in over 80 countries, and more than 50 languages.
For more information about the Almac Group, please visit www.almacgroup.com or e-mail info@almacgroup.com
About Greenphire
Greenphire’s clinical payment and communication solutions take a patient-centric and site-centric approach to driving data integrity and data completeness for sponsor, CRO, research university, and clinical research site clients. Greenphire’s web-based technologies are designed to improve the clinical experience for patients and sites, drive positive patient behavior, increase patient retention and compliance, and significantly reduce site and study team administration associated with patient payments and communication. Greenphire’s strategy is driven by the philosophy that empowered, satisfied patients and sites will deliver more consistent and better quality clinical data, which will in turn benefit both site coordinators and study teams. Learn more about Greenphire’s innovative clinical solutions at www.greenphire.com
