Medidata Solutions Expands ASPire to Win Partner Program

NEW YORK, NY-April 10, 2008-Medidata Solutions, Inc., a leading provider of clinical trial solutions, today announced the expansion of its ASPire to Win® partner program for contract research organizations (CRO), consultancies and other service providers. Driven by the growing opportunity for CROs and other service providers to meet sponsor demand for the Medidata Rave® electronic data capture (EDC), management and reporting solution, Medidata has broadened its ASPire to Win program to offer various levels of training and support for a wide range of partner activity.

Life science organizations are increasingly turning to CROs and other service providers to manage all or parts of their clinical research process. Worldwide, there are more than 1000 CROs serving the needs of small, medium, and large life science companies. Fueling this growth in outsourcing is the increasing complexity and growing size of studies, as well as the trend to conduct clinical research globally. As a growing number of sponsors rely on EDC systems to contain research costs and streamline trial timelines while ensuring quality decision-making, these companies look to CROs to help implement and manage EDC trials. To meet customer needs, CROs are building EDC-related services into their portfolios, including EDC site administration, study build and reporting. With the expansion of ASPire to Win, Medidata offers a flexible program to equip CROs and service providers with various Rave skills to help them optimize their services revenue around this industry-leading technology.

“We value the contributions that CROs and other service organizations are making to the EDC growth trend and understand that each organization has a unique set of goals and requirements for EDC,” said Graham Bunn, vice president of global CRO partnerships at Medidata. “As a result, we’ve moved away from a ‘one size fits all’ approach and expanded our program to enable our global network of business partners to choose the plan that will best meet the needs of their customers and complement their unique capabilities as well as grow their business with Medidata Rave.”

Medidata’s ASPire to Win Program is a nonexclusive enablement and accreditation program that supports selected CROs and other organizations, positioning them to create new services revenue around the implementation of Medidata Rave. ASPire to Win now offers four unique partner levels:

Rave Aware: Partners are qualified to market Medidata Rave, having completed Medidata Rave business development and end user training that familiarizes them with the Medidata Rave platform and Medidata services. This level is appropriate for a broad range of organizations, including CROs, consultants and other service providers that may evaluate or recommend EDC systems to clients.

Rave Ready: Partners complete training to provide basic EDC services, including end user training, site and user administration, reporting and closeout activities for Medidata Rave implementations.

Rave Accredited: Partners are trained to build and configure their customers? Medidata Rave studies. This level is ideal for organizations that want to provide study build services for Medidata Rave-in addition to end user training, administration and reporting services-and prepares CROs for full knowledge transfer in Rave Accredited Plus.

Rave Accredited Plus: Partners can provide the full suite of Medidata Rave-related services, including end user training, study build, reporting, outputs, integrations and migrations. This level is designed for organizations that want to be a one-stop shop for Medidata Rave implementation services.

Medidata first announced the ASPire to Win program in April 2005 in order to help CROs meet growing sponsor demand for Medidata Rave. Since then, ASPire to Win has grown to include 11 partners, ranging from smaller clinical consultancies to large, global CROs.

“We’ve partnered with Medidata in response to the growing number of sponsors that request Medidata Rave implementations and related services,” said James Esinhart, executive vice president of Biometrics and Late Phase at Chiltern, a UK-based CRO. “Medidata has proven to be a key strategic partner as we grow our global business. They understand our specific needs and unique capabilities, and partner with us in a way that enables us to best use Rave to provide customers with truly innovative EDC solutions.”

About Medidata Solutions Worldwide

Medidata Solutions ( www.mdsol.com) is a leading provider of clinical trial solutions that enable the world?s most advanced life science organizations to maximize the value of their clinical research investments by putting powerful tools into researchers’ hands. A pioneer since 1999 in innovative technologies for planning and managing clinical studies- including protocol design; clinical data capture, management, and reporting; and trial contracting and negotiation-Medidata Solutions and its global network of business partners address the unique needs of sponsors and sites of all sizes. With deep expertise in conducting studies across all phases and therapeutic areas, on six continents and in more than 80 countries, Medidata Solutions helps clinical researchers reduce trial cycle times, achieve early visibility to reliable clinical data, and maintain strict fiscal responsibility, while safely accelerating the process of bringing life-enhancing treatments to market.