Guildford, UK, and Burlington, Mass., January 20, 2012 – Governor Deval Patrick and the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center today joined officials from IDBS to open the company?s Healthcare Center of Excellence and to celebrate the expansion of the IDBS business in Massachusetts.
The events stemmed from a meeting between UK-based IDBS, Governor Patrick, the Center and other Massachusetts officials at the BIO International Convention in Washington DC last year, and from the stronger business ties between Massachusetts and the UK built during the Governor?s Massachusetts Innovation Economy Partnership Mission to the UK. In July, 2011 IDBS announced that its Burlington office would become its U.S. Healthcare Headquarters, and unveiled plans to expand the facility to include a new Healthcare Center of Excellence. The expansion has included a doubling of the company?s local workforce from eight to sixteen employees.
“Thanks to our investments in education, innovation and infrastructure, Massachusetts is a great place for international life sciences companies to do business,” said Governor Patrick. “Our Administration was happy to work with IDBS at the BIO International Convention this past June, and thrilled now to have them grow jobs in Massachusetts by establishing their U.S. Healthcare Headquarters here.”
At the event, IDBS VP of Business Development Chris Molloy introduced Governor Patrick who spoke to the role of companies such as IDBS in strengthening Massachusetts? innovation economy. Governor Patrick was shown the advanced technologies IDBS has developed that combine clinical and genomic data to improve medical research treatment outcomes. These systems are already in use in leading local centers such as the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute as well as other national and international hubs. The Massachusetts Life Sciences Center was represented by Melissa Walsh, Chief Operating Officer. Also participating in the ribbon-cutting were Massachusetts State Representative Charles Murphy, Massachusetts
State Senator Kenneth Donnelly, Massachusetts Office for International Trade & Investment Executive Director Ken Brown, and UK Deputy Consul Anne Avidon. The ribbon cutting ceremony was attended by a wide range of IDBS customers and analysts across biotechnology, pharmaceutical, and healthcare research.
IDBS plays a major role in international, as well as local biotechnology, pharmaceutical, and healthcare research organizations, helping leading companies to secure data, optimize processes, and provide insight into complex information. With software solutions from IDBS, R&D and healthcare organizations can improve decision making, accelerate product lifecycles, and increase innovation.
The IDBS Healthcare Unit is dedicated to the advancement of personalized medicines and improved patient outcomes through the delivery of advanced translational medicine and biomarker research informatics that bridge the worlds of clinical, molecular and image data. IDBS? analytics solutions underpin improved disease understanding, more effective diagnosis and treatment selection.
“Massachusetts is a center for innovation in science and technology, and IDBS? decision to expand here attests to the strength of our life sciences workforce and the opportunities to partner with leading companies and academic institutions,” said Susan Windham-Bannister, Ph.D., President & CEO of the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center. “We will continue to reach out to outstanding life sciences companies around the world and invite them to locate and expand in Massachusetts. They strengthen our life sciences cluster with their presence.”
“I join the Governor in celebrating IDBS? expansion in Massachusetts,” said Ken Brown, Executive Director of the Massachusetts Office of International Trade & Investment. “ Today’s announcement demonstrates that the Commonwealth is a compelling destination for innovation and global business.”
IDBS? Founder and CEO Neil Kipling said, “Massachusetts provides a fertile environment for our investment in personalized medicine informatics. The need to harness the power of genetics to support decision making in a clinical environment has never been greater. From our new Healthcare Center of Excellence in Massachusetts, we are uniting diagnostics, pharmaceutical, academic centers and now hospital environments to create a collaborative genomically-centered ecosystem focused on improving patient care and better research through collaboration.”
The British Consulate in Boston congratulated IDBS on the opening of their Healthcare Center of Excellence. “The successful expansion of IDBS? business in Massachusetts is a fine example of the type of collaboration we wish to foster between the UK and Massachusetts, drawing on the complementary strengths of each region,” said Dr. Hilary Glidden, Vice Consul and US Lead for Biotechnology & Pharmaceuticals with UK Trade & Investment.
“IDBS has been instrumental in developing technologies that have revolutionized the way pharmaceutical companies and health care providers deliver services,” said State Representative Charles Murphy (D- Burlington). “I am thrilled to join IDBS in opening the Healthcare Center of Excellence in Burlington and look forward to future collaboration and cooperation.”
About IDBS
IDBS is a global provider of innovative enterprise data management, analytics and modeling solutions. The company?s uniquely sophisticated platform technologies are used by more than 200 pharmaceutical companies, major healthcare providers, global leaders in academic study, and high tech companies to increase efficiency, reduce costs and improve the productivity of industrial R&D and clinical research. IDBS is clearly differentiated by its unique combination of award- winning enterprise technologies and domain knowledge in R&D.
IDBS? solutions help scientists, hospitals and R&D businesses produce the world?s newest therapeutics, diagnostics and personalized treatments, high-tech materials and consumer products, faster, cleaner engines and fuels, breakthroughs in productive agriculture, healthy, safer food products, and high tech materials and products.
Founded in 1989 and privately held, IDBS is headquartered in Guildford, UK with a direct sales and support presence worldwide. IDBS is a Profit Track 100 2010 company and the recipient of multiple awards including the Frost and Sullivan „Enabling Technology? Award in R&D data management for 2010 and Queen?s Award for International Trade 2011. Further information can be found at www.idbs.com, or follow us on Twitter @IDBSsoftware.
About The Massachusetts Life Sciences Center
The Massachusetts Life Sciences Center (“the Center”) is a quasi-public agency of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts tasked with implementing the Massachusetts Life Sciences Act, a ten-year, $1 billion initiative that was signed into law in June of 2008. The Center?s mission is to create jobs in the life sciences and support vital scientific research that will improve the human condition. This work includes making financial investments in public and private institutions that are advancing life sciences research, development and commercialization as well as building ties between sectors of the Massachusetts life sciences community. For more information, visit www.masslifesciences.com or contact Angus McQuilken, VP for Communications: 617 921 7749 or amcquilken@masslifesciences.com
