Veeva: eTMF software makes CROs stand out from the cloud

01-Jun-2015 - Last updated on 02-Jun-2015 at 13:23 GMT

Veeva Systems’ cloud-based software could be a decisive factor for pharma firms looking to select a CRO, the firm says as it reports a robust Q1.

For the first quarter of fiscal year 2016, the firm - which provides cloud-based software for R&D and commercial applications - reported revenues of $90m (€82m), up 35% year-on-year, while net income grew 80% to $13m.

The firm is advancing its position in the electronic trial master file (eTMF) sector for managing clinical trial data winning a top 20 Pharma client for its Vault software in the qaurter, CEO Peter Gassner told investors last week.

“Five of the top 20 pharmas have [now] selected Vault eTMF to manage their clinical trials documents globally,” he said. “In total more than 50 life sciences organizations are moving to the Veeva Vault’s eTMF.”

Matt Wallach, Veeva’s President, added the software was emerging as the industry standard for eTMF and would become a decisive factor for contract research organisations (CROs) looking to win pharma clients.

“When CROs are competing for a big deal at a pharma company, the pharma companies are now asking ‘what is your level of experience with Vault’ and that is helping to drive some of the discussions we’re having with the CROs.

“There are two things going on,” he continued: “The CROs that are using Vault today are having a lot of success and they are expanding their usage, and the usage within the sponsors is driving incremental interest within the other CROs that are not yet using it.”

However, according to a survey Veeva put out last year CROs were more likely than pharma firms to use paper documents across all functional areas, though around 20% use an eTMF application compared to 15% of sponsors.

Commercial GSK deal

Veeva also attributed its robust results to a number of other contract wins, including being selected by Big Pharma firm GlaxoSmithKline which entered a multi-year contract for multichannel customer relationship management (CRM) software, used to manage its customers’ engagement.

“GSK selected Veeva to be their global multichannel CRM partner and is expected to rollout globally over the next few years,” Gassner said last week.

“Having one of the leading pharma select us not only for our core CRM for face-to-face sales force automation, but at the same time make a commitment to multichannel is a big move.”