eClinical results round-up
Medidata Solutions posted a 25 per cent rise in second quarter net sales, in part because of the impact of renewals with top 25 pharma companies that pulled revenue forward. Of the $3.5m (€2.4m) sales acceleration, $2m came from later this year and the rest from 2012.
“We expect revenue growth to be in line if not better in 2012 as compared to 2011, while absorbing the loss of Wyeth as a customer. Then, we expect growth to accelerate in 2013 on account of cross-selling traction”, Sandy Draper, equity analyst at Raymond James, said in a note to investors.
Integration of CareFusion Research Services drove year-on-year revenue and profit growth at eResearch Technologies (ERT), but soaring costs and lower guidance tainted the results.
Costs rose as ERT upped staffing to meet “aggressive study timelines for key strategic customers in our respiratory and ePRO (electronic patient reported outcome) business lines”, Jeffrey Litwin, CEO of ERT said.
Following ‘lower than expected results’ ERT reduced the top end of its 2011 net revenue guidance by $5m. Shares in ERT plunged following release of the results but recovered slightly to close down 11 per cent.
BioClinica doubled its operating income on an uptick in revenue and close to flat costs. In recent quarters BioClinica has continued its, previously criticised, strategy of moving into eClinical and has introduced a clinical trial management system (CTMS).
"Initially oriented towards small- to medium- pharma companies, we are now seeing tremendous interest from major global pharmaceutical companies and medical device companies as well”, Mark Weinstein, CEO of BioClinica, said.
Perceptive Informatics posted a double-digit increase in service revenue in fourth quarter results, continuing the trend seen in fiscal 2011. However, declining margins, the opposite of the full year trend, meant gross profit only increased slightly.
In its third quarter results Parexel, the owner of Perceptive, said the eClinical unit was on course to make a loss in fiscal 2011. Expansion of profit margin through increased efficiency was proposed as the route to profitability.
