Medidata Solutions & Icon Clinical Research Formalize Global Partnership

NEW YORK, Feb. 28 /PRNewswire/ -- Medidata Solutions, a global electronic clinical data management solutions provider managing trials in 39 countries, and ICON Clinical Research , a full-service global clinical research organization providing a comprehensive range of services in Phase I-IV clinical trials, today announced a formal partnership to expand ICON’s global data management capabilities as a certified Medidata RAVE implementation and services partner.

As part of the agreement, ICON has adopted Medidata’s ASPire To Win(TM) Program, a non-exclusive, application service provider (ASP) partnership and business model enabling clinical research organizations (CROs) to implement and use Medidata RAVE for electronic data management of clinical trials. ICON data management staff will become certified to offer independent services supporting the use of the technology for clinical studies.

“As a global leader, ICON has increasingly been providing EDC services to our clients. After working with and evaluating more than a dozen other systems, ICON believes that Medidata RAVE is an excellent solution in terms of usability and scalability,” said ICON’s CEO Peter Gray. “While we will continue to work with other technologies, having staff certified to build and deploy EDC studies on Medidata’s industry-recognized and proven global platform will create significant competitive advantages for ICON, and commensurate benefits to our customers.”

Tarek Sherif, CEO of Medidata Solutions said, “This partnership is unique, and a first for the life sciences industry. The competencies of ICON and Medidata have been combined to benefit our mutual drug sponsor customers.”

Dennis Cunningham, SVP Strategic Alliances for Medidata added, “Driving our ASPire To Win Program is growing sponsor requirements for efficient trials deploying eCDM solutions. Sponsor demand for Medidata RAVE will continue to outpace our internal supply and we value certified partners that have added our eCDM solution to their existing CRO offerings. In ICON, we have chosen a proven global leader to meet the needs of sponsors seeking improved data collection efficiency and data integrity.”

About Medidata Solutions

Medidata Solutions understands and helps customers manage the business of electronic Clinical Data Management better than any one else. Designed to reduce the latency of information flow, optimize decision-making and improve resource allocation and safety, Medidata Solutions’ flexible, enterprise class workflow and web-based technology assists global life sciences and research organizations to accelerate the process of bringing life-enhancing treatments to market. Streamlined collection, verification, consolidation and analysis of clinical research data gives front line investigators, data managers and executives powerful tools to make more precise decisions earlier, reduce costs and drive efficiency. To learn more about Medidata Solutions visit http://www.mdsol.com/

About ICON Clinical Research

ICON is a full service contract research organization providing a comprehensive range of clinical services in Phase I-IV clinical research studies to the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and device industries. With more than 37 offices in 23 countries and over 2,700 employees worldwide, ICON has the infrastructure necessary to support the many global mega trials it is currently conducting, but remains flexible enough to provide an individual, highly personalized service for locally managed projects. ICON manages trials in all therapeutic areas and offers services spanning the entire clinical development spectrum. To learn more about ICON visit http://www.iconclinical.com/

Medidata Solutions

CONTACT: Ed Viviani of Medidata Solutions, +1-212-918-1750,+1-781-782-5726, or eviviani@mdsol.com; or Dr. Malcolm Burgess of ICONClinical Research, +1-215-616-3000 or burgessm@iconus.com