WINSTON-SALEM, NC--(Marketwire - January 24, 2011) - The largest clinical trial expenses relate to the burdensome effort of manually completing and reviewing the original paper source documents at a research site. Clinical Ink, the pioneering provider of eSource solutions for clinical trials, announces a partnership with ePharmaSolutions to replace these paper documents with intelligent electronic forms for use in complex psychiatric and neurological studies. Simultaneously, Clinical Ink disclosed that it has secured an additional $2.7 Million in debt and equity financing to create the market for SureSource™, the industry's first electronic source record application.
"We have seen a dramatic increase in the number and types of site scoring errors on many of the psychometric scales used in clinical trials due to the complex administration requirements and elaborate scoring algorithms. Our relationship with Clinical Ink will set a new standard for completion of these forms by incorporating real time data validation and scoring to eliminate the expense and burden of reconciling these errors later in the study," said Lance Converse, Founder and CEO of ePharmaSolutions. "We have also integrated our proprietary remote video capture technology with Clinical Ink's intelligent eSource technology to simultaneously capture both the scoring data and an audio/visual record of the patient interactions. This complete patient record can be used to conduct independent diagnosis confirmation, data monitoring and adjudication, and interview skills assessment throughout the study."
"The pharmaceutical industry has largely ignored the most costly and time consuming aspect of conducting a clinical trial -- the need to manually review comprehensive patient information on paper documents at research sites around the world," said Ed Seguine, President of Clinical Ink. "Despite the hopeful rhetoric, neither EMR's nor existing EDC tools are viable alternatives to paper documents for clinical research. We are excited to partner with ePharmaSolutions to leverage their services expertise in combination with SureSource™, the first eSource application designed to look and feel like a familiar paper chart while running on the new generation tablet PCs, to provide a complete eSource solution to the unique complexities and nuances of CNS studies."
The financing includes substantial new investment by the management team and existing investors, several new private investors, as well as a line of credit through Sun Trust Bank. Funds will be used to build a robust sales and service organization and to further develop the SureSource platform to capture other types of paper source documents as eSource.
"Our ability to raise funds in such a difficult environment is an indication of our potential to dramatically change the business model of clinical research," said Doug Pierce, CEO of Clinical Ink.
Clinical Ink also announces the availability of SureSource 3.0 which has been fully validated in compliance with FDA regulations and represents the culmination of over three years of intensive development work and site user acceptance testing. This latest version incorporates unparalleled auto-save and recovery technology that completely eliminates the possibility of data loss due to connectivity or hardware failure.
About Clinical Ink
Clinical Ink has developed the first electronic source record (ESR) that meets all FDA, EMEA, and CDISC guidelines for eSource. SureSource™ replaces paper source documents with electronic forms that maintain the natural workflow, ease of use, and mobility of a paper chart. Clinical Ink is headquartered in Winston-Salem with employees in Philadelphia and Boston. For more information visit www.clinicalink.com or call 800-301-5033.
About ePharmaSolutions
ePharmaSolutions is a leading provider of technology-based clinical services that helps improve the way sites are selected, trained, activated and supported to commence clinical trials and meet enrollment goals. ePharmaSolutions has activated and trained more than 185,000 clinical researchers in 107 countries for the top 20 pharmaceutical companies in the world. ePharmaSolutions is headquartered in Philadelphia with offices in London. For more information visit www.epharmasolutions.com or call 610-832-9915.
Contact Information:
Contact:
Doug Pierce
Clinical Ink, Inc.
800-301-5033