|
|
COVANCE ANNOUNCES EUROPEAN LAUNCH OF StudyTracker® — THE FIRST "ONLINE STUDY MANAGEMENT SYSTEM" FOR NONCLINICAL DRUG SAFETY EVALUATION
StudyTracker® Provides Rapid and Secure Global Access to Toxicology Data and Study Information |
|
September 13, 2001 — Princeton, New Jersey, USA — Covance Inc. (NYSE: CVD) today announced the European launch of StudyTracker®, the first system that allows pharmaceutical clients to monitor their global nonclinical studies in near real time via the Internet. Pharmaceutical sponsors typically receive reports on these data from contractors days — and sometimes weeks — after the tests are completed. StudyTracker was successfully launched in the United States and Japan earlier this year.
With StudyTracker, Covance clients are able to view their toxicology study data twenty-four hours a day via the Internet from almost anywhere around the world. This rapid, secure access to data and information will provide pharmaceutical companies unprecedented management oversight of their outsourced studies, enabling them to speed their "go/no-go" decisions and initiate secondary trial stages sooner for promising drug candidates.
According to Joseph Herring, President, Covance Early Development Services, "As pharmaceutical companies face increasing pressure to improve the number, quality and commercial value of the drugs emerging from their pipelines, the need to enhance the productivity of their R&D resources has never been greater. StudyTracker brings a new level of efficiency to global nonclinical study management by providing our clients state-of-the-art data access and global communications. With this tool, we can help our clients rapidly channel important scientific data into commercial decision-making."
Last year, the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries spent an estimated $55 billion on global research and development activities. The significant time and costs of bringing new drugs to market is exacerbated by high attrition rates for new drug candidates — more than 50% of them fail in human clinical trials. By improving the quality and speed of decision-making in the nonclinical evaluation stage with a tool such as StudyTracker, pharmaceutical companies can move compounds with a high probability of commercial success into clinical development faster as well as more efficiently direct their resources toward more promising candidates.
StudyTracker boasts the highest level of Internet security available on a worldwide basis in the industry today. Data is protected by a series of firewalls and password-protected access fields. Because of StudyTracker's secure connection, files and correspondence can be exchanged electronically, saving valuable time and accelerating study schedules. In addition to viewing near real-time clinical pathology and anatomical pathology data from active toxicology studies through StudyTracker, Covance clients can also view schedule information from current studies, compare actual study data to historical control data, and send and receive files via a secure connection. All of these features enable StudyTracker to break down barriers of distance and time, and allow Covance's services to become an integrated part of our clients' organizations. StudyTracker will soon be expanded to enable access to other types of data such as metabolism and bioanalytical testing.
Covance, with headquarters in Princeton, New Jersey, is one of the world's largest and most comprehensive drug development services companies with 2000 pro forma revenues of $737 million, operations currently in 17 countries, and approximately 7,100 employees worldwide. Information on Covance's products and services, recent press releases, and SEC filings can be obtained through the website in the About Covance area.
Statements contained in this press release, which are not historical facts, are forward-looking statements pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All such forward-looking statements are based largely on management's expectations and are subject to and qualified by risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such statements. These risks and uncertainties include, without limitation, competitive factors, the Company's ability to effectively implement StudyTracker on a global basis, and other factors described in Covance's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. |
|
|
|
