Phase Forward prospers despite clients’ difficulties

29-Apr-2009 - Last updated on 30-Apr-2009 at 10:20 GMT

Clinical trial software provider Phase Forward posted strong Q1 financial results, with CRO related revenues jumping by 52 per cent despite the difficulties facing companies in the sector.

Contract research organisations (CRO), some of which are Phase Forward’s clients, have been hit by rising cancellations but the software and service provider has so far been insulated.

Bob Weiler, chairman and CEO of Phase Forward, explained in a conference call with investors that cancellations had so far followed the company’s predictions for 2009.

Weiler added: “A cancellation of one or two trials for us does not have the impact that it has for a CRO that may have already staffed up to that trial, it is maybe a $50m (€38m) trial for them, for us, it may just be the average ASP (application service provider) price of $450,000.”

The strong performance in the CRO sector helped Phase Forward’s operating income increase by 17 per cent to $5.2m. In addition total revenues rose to $48m.

Phase Forward’s InForm electronic data capture (EDC) software was responsible for almost 75 per cent of revenues, generating $36.4m for the company.

The company is confident it can build on this success, with Weiler saying: “Phase Forward continues to outpace other clinical data solution vendors with the addition of integrated IRT (interactive response technology) and now statistical computing environment and clinical data repository solutions to our industry leading EDC solution.”

Phase Forward signs deal with Novo Nordisk

Phase Forward has signed a multi-year, multi-million dollar deal with Novo Nordisk, expanding the relationship between the companies. Novo began integrating Phase Forward’s InForm software into its setup in 2006 and will now make it the default EDC system for all its Phase I to IV trials.

Henrik Lynge, head of clinical system management at Novo, said: “We’ve had a very successful collaboration with Phase Forward over the last three years, and look forward to expanding the relationship.

“InForm’s ability to easily integrate with other in-house systems and the product’s scalability have been crucial to the implementation, enabling our team to streamline data collection for complex studies spanning multiple geographies.”