NEW HEALTHCARERELATED PRODUCTS, SERVICES, AND COMPANIES
Immune Tolerance Institute (ITI), a new nonprofit company, is bringing economies of scale to translational and critical path science to build partnerships with the pharmaceutical and biotech industries, and accelerate the development of new immunebased therapeutics. ITI will bridge the gap that has existed between academia and industry,making the discov erytodevelopment process more costefficient and successful at generating new effective and safe drugs and companion diagnostics that match patients with therapies for immunerelated diseases. ITI is collaborating with Beckman Coulter on a Center for Critical Path Immunology to develop biomarkers for immune system diseases.This facility, which will be managed by ITI and located initially at Beckman Coulter’s Cellular Analysis Business Group in Miami,will integrate stateoftheart genomic,cel lular, proteomic, and bioinformatic technology plat forms to elucidate immune function in patients with a broad array of immunerelated diseases. “ITI’s Center for Critical Path Immunology is the first step in transforming the drug discovery process to one that identifies promising therapies in their early phases of development,and that produces drug can didates that are safer, more highly targeted,and effec tive in treating immune systemrelated diseases,”says Dr.Louis A.Matis,president and CEO of ITI. BioSpace Widens Scope to Include REGIONAL JOB CANDIDATES Acquisition expands the scope of the niche online bioscience career andnews community. BioSpace has expanded its reach to local candi dates through the acquisition of RegionalHelp Wanted.com by its parent company, onTar getjobs. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. With the addition of RegionalHelp Wanted.com’s network of more than 350 geo graphically focused Internet job boards, BioSpace now offers biotechnology, pharma ceutical, medical device, and academic organi zations an improved value proposition to reach local bioscience candidates. By leveraging RegionalHelpWanted’s next wave of advertising opportunities through its geo specific Web portals, reinforced with local radio advertising, bioscience businesses can now target a growing network of candidates on both industry and regional levels. Local markets served by RegionalHelp Wanted.com — for example, the Bay Area in northern California and Research Triangle Park in North Carolina — complement BioSpace’s existing industry hotbeds. The network also provides solutions to many emerg ing bioscience regions, including cities in Arizona, south Florida, central NewYork,and the state of Wash ington. “BioSpace is pleased to offer to bioscience industry employers expanded targeting for their job postings,” says Wes Crews,CEO of BioSpace.“Lifesciences profes sionals search for career opportunities on both indus trywide and local levels, and BioSpace’s alliance with regionalhelpwanted.com will help connect across each of these expansive recruiting networks.” “As the effectiveness and popularity of niche Inter net communities and employment sites grow to rival the larger horizontal job boards, the addition of RegionalHelpWanted.com’s geotargeted audience diversifies and strengthens the value proposition to our existing industryfocused client base,” says Allen Paschal,CEO of onTargetjobs. Nonprofit to Accelerate DISCOVERYOF IMMUNEBASED THERAPEUTICS The MedKnowledge Group has announced the launch of the Partnership for MedEvent Compliance (PMC), which is designed to address the increasing need for compliance management and support services in the pharmaceutical industry. PMC was founded on the principle of providing a compliant platform for ensuring measurable risk reduc tion and offering creative ways to maximize opportunities and further strengthen relationships between pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry clients and the healthcare community. Using automated systems and customizable compliance assurance event management software, a high ly trained and experienced team of event managers, compliance directors, data managers, and IT profession als ensure all events are precisely arranged, flawlessly executed, and accurately reported. The creation of PMC is a natural progression of MedKnowlege’s experience and expertise in compliance assurance and the management of fieldbased programming, according to David Otfinoski, CEO of Med Knowledge. “In launching PMC, it is our intention to provide the highest level of compliance management,while part nering with our clients’ field forces and marketing teams to offer concierge services for managing their critical relationships with key opinion leaders,”Mr. Otfinoski says. PMC joins other companies within the MedKnowledge Group, including MedKnowledge Communica tions, InteliMed, Insight Interactive, MES,Pharmedicom,and MedKnowledge Global Communications.Together, these businesses are committed to providing strategic solutions to the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and medical device industries for all stages of the product life cycle, from the early stages of clinical development through commercialization. “There are many obstacles to navigate in bringing to market pharmaceutical products that we all know are vital to maintaining our good health and quality of life,” says Bethanne Sheeley, J.D., senior director, com pliance for PMC.“Whether it’s addressing the challenges of providing compliant speaker events or managing the data required for disclosures and limitations in marketing practices, PMC effectively unites compliance assurance functions with creativity and customized service, enabling clients to remain compliant and com petitive.” Lifescience professionals search for career opportunities on both industrywide and local levels, and BioSpace’s alliance with regionalhelpwanted.com will help connect job seekers and employers across each of these expansive recruiting networks, says Wes Crews, CEO of BioSpace. MedKnowledge Launches COMPLIANCE MANAGEMENTARM 94 M a y 20 08 PharmaVOICE PV0508 Issue FINAL2 4/23/08 10:39 AM Page 94 WHAT’S new CURRENT BIODATA, a privately held provider of scientific data to the pharmaceutical industry, is opening a new research and publishing center in Wales to serve customers in the United States and Europe, as well as other global markets. The center is based at the Institute of Life Science at Swansea University and joins Current BioData’s research centers in London and Geneva. Current BioData uses sophisticated computer search technolo gy to scan the Internet for publications and news about proteins that can be useful to the pharmaceutical industry in developing drugs. For more information, visit currentbiodata.com D. ANDERSON & COMPANY (DAC), a global patient recruit ment and retention provider for the clinical trials industry, has opened an office in Windsor, United Kingdom, to service the growing international demand for recruitment and retention pro grams.DAC has headquarters in Dallas and offices in Houston and Seattle. The U.K.office expands DAC’s local support services to its grow ing base of clients and prospects in Europe, where it has conduct ed a number of onsite trainings with clinical investigators. It