WIRB-Copernicus Group’s clinical services division has bought out trial consultancy firm Waife & Associates as it looks to boost its clinical management services.
W&A focuses on making clinical development more efficient and productive by managing areas in organization, process and technology, with services including: clinical operations process improvement, information technology strategy and implementation management, service/product vendor selection and oversight, pharmacovigilance process improvement and virtual executive management.
With the buyout (financial details which were not disclosed), W&A's founder Ronald Waife moves over to become WCG’s chief management consulting officer.
“With this acquisition, WCG has taken another important step toward its goal of providing comprehensive transformational services to those conducting clinical trials,” said Donald Deieso, Ph.D., executive chairman and CEO of WCG.
“We have long recognized that research sites and sponsors universally need assistance in improving the speed and efficacy of their operational processes. We are excited to add W&A’s unique expertise, perspective and skills to accelerate improvement in research enterprises.
“We look forward to expanding the breadth of their market impact and enabling them to draw on WCG’s rich knowledgebase of data and resources to inform and enhance the operations of those who sponsor and conduct life-saving clinical research.”
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This comes several months after WCG snapped up PharmaSeek, which specializes in consulting, patient recruitment and training for clinical research sites, all with a focus on reducing timelines for studies.
Back in April, it also bought up Analgesic Solutions, which looks to improve the quality of clinical trials in pain management and itself came a few months after WCG's purchase of First Clinical Research, organizer of the MAGI (Model Agreements & Guidelines International) Clinical Research Conference.
“We are greatly pleased to join WCG, which is demonstrating a true commitment to innovation and transformation in drug development,” said Waife. “The possibilities this offers us to expand our contributions, and create new opportunities for new solutions, is very exciting to us.”
Like WCG’s other buys, W&A will continue to operate independently and stay in its headquarters in Needham, Massachusetts, with “WCG [providing] W&A with access to capital, expertise and corporate operational support,” the firm added in a statement.