Coventry medical research network sold to Irish drug and device development company
A Ireland-based global provider of drug and device development and commercialisation services to pharmaceutical, biotechnology, medical device industries, ICON, has acquired a majority shareholding in Coventry-based MeDiNova Research, a site network with research sites in Europe and Africa, and has the right to acquire the remaining shares in the company by 2020.
The acquisition further enhances ICON’s patient recruitment capabilities in EMEA and complements its existing site network in the US, PMG Research.
Founded in 2000, MeDiNova Research is a network of 33 active clinical research sites in the UK, Spain, South Africa, Poland and Romania. The company operates a number of different site models, including dedicated research sites, integrated research sites and working closely with affiliate sites.
MeDiNova Research has particular experience in musculoskeletal, respiratory, cardiovascular, dermatology, infectious disease, metabolic, general health and vaccine studies and its sites have a proprietary database of 400,000 patients who reside within easy reach of the sites. It also has access to over five million potential study patients via electronic medical records.
Kumar Muthalagappan OBE, Chief Executive Officer, MeDiNova Research, said: “MeDiNova sites are focused on being high enrollers coupled with high quality, to exceed our pharma clients’ expectations. Our solutions are based on reducing start up times, early achievement of enrolment targets and high retention rates by delivering an excellent patient experience. ICON provides MeDiNova with a great opportunity for continued growth through scaling our knowledge, infrastructures and healthcare relationships. The MeDiNova-ICON combination will further enhance our highly productive models to deliver best in class site performance for the industry.”
Dr. Steve Cutler, Chief Executive Officer, ICON plc, said: “ICON has a focused patients, sites and data strategy which is helping us to improve site identification, study placement and patient recruitment and retention. A successful element of our strategy has been our integrated PMG site network in the US and our ability to grow alliances with third party sites and healthcare institutions in the US and Europe. MeDiNova provides us with a platform to further expand our site network in key EMEA markets and will help us to recruit patients into studies faster. MeDiNova’s experience in operating multiple site models and their strong therapeutic expertise will greatly benefit our customers’ development programmes.”
