Author: Peter Mansell

Net revenues at US-based contract research organisation (CRO) PPD dipped by 1.8% year on year to US$368.2 million in the fourth quarter of 2008. But operating income surged by 28.3% over the same quarter of 2007, to US$71.9 million.

The UK government should create a National Institute for Infectious Diseases (NIID) that integrates research into diseases affecting humans and animals, says the Royal Society.

Synexus, the UK-based patient recruitment and clinical trial management business acquired by private equity firm Lyceum Capital in December 2007, has launched a general practitioner sales force in its home market.

US-based contract research organisation (CRO) PPD has agreed to acquire AbCRO Inc, an American-owned and -managed CRO operating in Central and Eastern Europe, for an undisclosed sum.

Multi-year, multi-million dollar extensions and expansions of contracts with “four of the top 10 pharmaceutical companies in the world” for its InForm electronic data capture solution helped sweeten a fourth quarter that saw Phase Forward’s revenues climb 27.8% to US$48.3 million.