Microsoft Honors Clinical Ink / Novartis AG eSource Project With Life Science Innovation Award

HORSHAM, PA--(Marketwire - June 29, 2012) -

Clinical Ink, the pioneering provider of eSource solutions for clinical trials, announced today that Microsoft has recognized Clinical Ink and Novartis as recipients of a 2012 Life Science Innovation Award. The prestigious award, announced at the Drug Information Association’s (DIA) 48th Annual Meeting in Philadelphia, honors companies that use Microsoft solutions to achieve strategic information technology benefits.

The award-winning Clinical Ink solution, SureSource®, utilizes Windows-based tablet PCs to capture subject data on electronic forms at the time of the patient visit and eliminates the need for paper documents at the site. In this project, which involved over 100 subjects and researchers, the clinical data was available for review inside the Novartis analytical environment within 30 minutes -- a dramatic improvement from the typical 17 day cycle and represents a huge opportunity to improve patient safety. Additionally, approximately 80% of the activities typically associated with monitoring a clinical trial site could be performed remotely through the Clinical Ink web application; globally clinical trial monitoring costs exceed $11 Billion annually.

“We are extremely pleased that Novartis was able to achieve such substantial operational benefits the very first time they deployed the SureSource platform,” commented Ed Seguine, CEO of Clinical Ink. “As the largest pharmaceutical company to adopt an eSource approach to clinical trial execution, the Novartis team demonstrated remarkable vision and resolve. I expect other companies will look at the unambiguous results from this project, as well as the FDA’s explicit support for eSource and Risk-Based Monitoring initiatives such as this, to begin adopting eSource approaches more aggressively. As this award recognizes, the benefits are dramatic and achievable now.”

The SureSource platform utilizes the latest Microsoft technology and hardware to deliver clinical results more affordably, more confidently, and more quickly than existing technology approaches. As a recent Gartner report points out, Clinical Ink “has significant disruptive potential... to eliminate steps and streamline the clinical study data capture process” (see www.clinicalink.com/gartner2012).

“Now more than ever, the life sciences industry is faced with many challenges including cutting costs and bringing new drugs and therapies to market faster,” said Andrea McGonigle, national managing director, Life Sciences, Microsoft Corp. “We are impressed with how the winners demonstrate sustainable impacts through technology, and are proud that Microsoft’s software plays an important role in enabling these achievements in life sciences.”

Clinical Ink and Novartis were selected by a panel of industry experts from among companies applying innovative solutions to address the staggering cost and complexity of conducting clinical trials today. See more on the Microsoft website at http://www.microsoft.com/lifesciences and on the Microsoft In Health blog at http://blogs.msdn.com/b/microsoft_in_health/.

About Clinical Ink, Inc.
Clinical Ink has pioneered the development of eSource technology for use in clinical trials. SureSource® replaces paper source documents and CRFs with intuitive electronic forms that maintain the natural workflow, ease of use, and mobility of paper chart. Unlike EDC systems, our approach to eSource captures/validates data during the subject visit. As a result, data queries are dramatically reduced, SDV is eliminated, monitoring is performed real-time and remotely, and validated clinical data is available within minutes. Clinical Ink has offices in Philadelphia and Winston-Salem. For more information visit www.clinicalink.com or call 800-301-5033.