CRO research roundup: Partnership, grant and milestone

Contract research organizations have seen a number of recent partnerships, grants and milestone payments. Here’s a quick round up of recent deals:

Evotec

German CRO Evotec earned a milestone payment of €1m ($1.36m) thanks to its research alliance with Boehringer Ingelheim. The milestone was for the transition of a back-up compound from a respiratory programme into pre-clinical development.

We have now achieved twenty three milestones as part of the collaboration with Boehringer Ingelheim,” Mario Polywka, Chief Operating Officer of Evotec, said. “The completed research phase of this alliance has led to significant potential clinical milestones and royalties for compounds that are already in pre-clinical and clinical development if they progress successfully.”

In 2004, Evotec and Boehringer entered into a multi-year, multi-target drug discovery alliance to identify and develop pre-clinical candidates for the treatment of CNS, inflammation, cardiometabolic and respiratory diseases. In 2009, the collaboration was extended for an additional four years and the scope expanded to include oncology targets.

Technical Resources International

Maryland-based TRI was awarded the Cancer Prevention Clinical Trials Auditing and Informatics Support contract by the National Cancer Institute, which is a division of the National Institutes of Health. The contract could be worth as much as $19m over five years.

TRI will provide NCI’s Division of Cancer Prevention (DCP) with trial oversight capabilities for a program dedicated to cancer prevention clinical trials. Services will include data management, auditing and data verification, as well as education and training to staff conducting cancer prevention clinical trials.

Investigators supported by DCP are generating new information about molecular processes; developing effective chemoprevention agents; discovering early detection biomarkers; pinpointing mechanistically targeted nutrients; testing new screening methods and technologies; and conducting phase I, II, and III clinical trials in prevention and control through national networks and at the community level.

ClinicalRM

Ohio-based ClinicalRM has partnered with the Ohio Clinical Trials Collaborative (OCTC) to offer joint services for clinical trials of drugs, biologics and medical devices. The relationship will serve the organizations' mutual customers and include services such as access to a network of veteran investigators, patient population identification, clinical operations, and guidance on medical/regulatory affairs.

"Expedited access to Ohio's premier medical institutions will shorten the time to start a new multisite clinical trial as well as assure timely patient enrollment for our clients," said Alan Braverman, VP of Clinical Operations of ClinicalRM.

The OCTC is a statewide initiative that streamlines contracting, budgeting, approval of human subject use and patient recruitment/enrollment processes.