DrugDev acquires site payment specialist CFS Clinical

21-Oct-2013 - Last updated on 22-Oct-2013 at 06:18 GMT

DrugDev looks to grow with CFS Clinical

Sponsor network developer DrugDev on Monday announced it would acquire CFS Clinical, which specializes in managing the financing of clinical trials. Financial terms were not disclosed.

The companies said their combined infrastructure will give sponsors the ability to garner real–time feedback from site investigators during the feasibility stages of a trial, rapidly select the right investigators who are best suited to run a trial, and further expedite payments for sites.

CFS VP Kevin Williams hinted at the news when he sat down for an interview with Outsourcing-Pharma.com last month. The company was seeing between 20% and 30% growth annually, he told us.

Williams also told us yesterday that "the capital strength from DrugDev’s investor, Invesco Perpetual, one of the premier investors in blue chip pharma, will enable CFS to further scale and develop its industry-leading solutions."

Some of King of Prussia, Pennsylvania-based CFS’ competitors, such as Clinverse, have explained the myriad ways that paying clinical trial sites accurately and in a timely manner can improve relationships.

Both DrugDev, which has a platform for over 80,000 trial physicians in 93 countries and CFS’s tools will be provided in the near term as a full service business process and as software as a service (SaaS) to pharmaceutical and CRO clients.

"One of the immediate positive impacts to our business is DrugDev’s offices in London, which will enable further expansion of the CFS team in London to support our continued global growth," Williams added.

CFS’s platform also supports DrugDev’s plan to make the lives of clinical trial investigators simpler and easier by standardizing their interactions with sponsors and CROs, DrugDev said.

“By adding CFS’ study startup and Investigator payment solutions to the portfolio, we extend our capabilities to implement standards, and so continue our journey of putting the Investigator back at the heart of the clinical trial process. CFS’ dominance in this space is shown as they have made Investigator payments of in excess of $800m to date,” DrugDev President and CEO, Ibraheem Mahmood said.

CFS Clinical will maintain its brand name and conduct business as part of the DrugDev group.