Icon extends strategic contract from Lilly

pharmafile | June 15, 2009 | News story | Manufacturing and Production ICON 

Irish contract research organisation Icon will manage clinical trial set-up and management for Lilly's European trials in a deal that extends an earlier strategic partnership between the two firms.

Last November, Lilly tapped Icon for its expertise in clinical data management outside the US and Japan, part of a major drive by the drug major towards greater use of outsourcing across its R&D functions.

"Today's announcement marks another milestone in the successful partnership between Icon and Lilly," commented Icon's chief executive Peter Gray.

"We have worked together to create a truly flexible model that better meets Lilly's patient and portfolio needs and will also drive productivity within Lilly's clinical operations in Europe."

Lilly's progressive transformation of its preclinical and clinical research kicked off in August 2008 when it signed a 10-year, $1.6 billion contract with Covance in a deal which saw that CRO take over the drugmaker's Greenfield Laboratories research unit.

Since then the company has also signed broad-ranging deals with Zydus Cadila, Quintiles and i3, and forged an R&D joint venture with India's Jubilant Organosys,

For CROs, these high-level, strategic agreements with big pharma companies are highly prized as they bring a guaranteed annual spend, often have higher margins and make it easier to plan resource allocation.

With smaller companies most likely to delay clinical projects in order to conserve cash reserves, broad-ranging contracts with large drugmakers like Lilly can guarantee CROs a larger share of a smaller pool of available studies.

Jeff Kasher, vice president and chief operating officer for global clinical development at Lilly, said the firm was "constantly evaluating how we can do things better to increase our flexibility and focus our internal efforts on our core capabilities".

The new expanded deal with Icon "will increase our ability to speed innovative medicines to patients," he added.

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