ACRES and inVentiv Health Partner to Promote Operational Excellence and Shared, Global Clinical Research Platform

inVentiv Clinical Trial Recruitment Solutions (iCTRS), created to accelerate trials, and the Alliance for Clinical Research Excellence and Safety (ACRES), an Alliance-driven non-profit organization operating in the public interest and dedicated to enhancing quality, safety, integrity and operational effectiveness in drug development and health research, are partnering to fast-track the development of a global system to support responsible conduct of clinical trials according to the highest standards of safety, quality and efficiency.

Numerous challenges limit the pace of progress for global clinical research. According to ACRES, the industry squanders $20 billion annually due to inefficiencies inherent to the current process of bringing a new drug to market. Uniform global standards for research sites and independent third-party accreditation are lacking, as are interconnectivity and interoperability. Standards support the objective identification and assessment of sites, delivering improved system management and long-term sustainability.

The partnership between ACRES and inVentiv focuses on developing and adopting global standards and performance metrics as the basis for clinical research best practices and guidelines, to encourage operational excellence. iCTRS brings expertise in global, data-driven decision support systems, advanced informatics technologies and a patient-centric approach for trial acceleration.

To further augment the partnership, Otis Johnson, Vice President of Clinical Research Services at iCTRS, will join the Steering Committee of ACRES' Site Optics and Quality Informatics Initiative (SOQI), focused on the development of a global information platform for effective trial management. The open access infrastructure will offer a collaborative network housing a massive data repository for worldwide data exchange. Johnson, a recognized thought leader in the industry, brings innovative solutions and thorough understanding of responsible 'big data' management and analytics, critical to the new system.

"iCTRS brings the clinical experience and global capabilities needed to help facilitate a comprehensive information management strategy necessary for the development of a global system," says Dr. Greg Koski, President and CEO of ACRES. "We look forward to Mr. Johnson joining the SOQI initiative, and leveraging his extensive clinical research, development and operations expertise."

"We're excited to join the ACRES Global Network as they set the standard for clinical excellence measures that will transform the industry," said Otis Johnson. "Together we'll promote new standards worldwide by creating awareness, building strategic industry alliances and raising the bar for clinical research sites."

As part of inVentiv Health, iCTRS' innovative capabilities to recruit and retain patients, draws upon expertise from over a dozen inVentiv Health business units that focus on the development and commercialization of drugs and other medical products for the life sciences industry. inVentiv Health has directly supported the development and/or commercialization of 60% of all drugs approved by the FDA in the last 5 years.

"inVentiv Health, with their extensive network of biopharmaceutical service companies worldwide, shares our vision of raising the standard of excellence," Koski added.