The US firm made the comments in the Q&A section of its third quarter results webcast yesterday - during which it reported that service revenue increased 4.1 per cent to $16.6m (EUR12m) and net income fell 55 per cent to $358,000 on charges related to restructuring activities carried out earlier this year.
CEO Mark Weinstein first spoke about imaging services, saying that: “I think it has been at a bit of a plateau for the last couple of years. You had a huge ramp up with the interest in oncology that generated an amazing amount of imaging endpoints.”
“What we see now is the beginning of another ramp, primarily driven by the work that is coming in the central nervous systems area,” he said, adding that BioClinica is currently running the largest dementia Phase III study in the world.
“It is all about dementia," he continued, adding "the market is going to be so large. A lot of pharmaceutical companies are approaching it aggressively.”
Bioclinica was similarly upbeat about the performance of its electronic data capture (EDC) business, which it launched late in 2010 in a move that attracted criticism from a number of very vocal shareholders.
The firm said that – in line with the pattern seen in prior quarters – demand for its EDC offering increased in the three months to September 30. It also predicted that EDC will contribute about 40 per cent of its service revenue in 2011 and that demand will grow 20 per cent a year going forward.
Integrated EDC platform in 2 years
Part of this growth forecast is based on Bioclinica’s efforts to develop an integrated EDC platform that allows sponsors and CROs the firm works with to access data and make decisions in real-time, according to Weinstein.
“We actually have a complete, laid out roadmap that shows us getting to a unified solution in the next two years,” he explained adding that there are a number of touch points where near real-time access is available today citing the area of EDC and IWR as an example.
“The market is not buying a complete unified solution today and we a confident that we will have that solution when the market is ready to buy it, which is in a year and a half to two year time line.”
Weinstein also set his firm's efforts in a wider market context in relation to EDC competitors.
“I don’t think anyone is there….I think we are progressing faster than most with the newest platform in the marketplace.”
Strategic deals boost biz with CROs
BioClinica also reflected on the impact strategic partnering is having on its business, explaining that it is starting to do an increasing about of work with contract research organisations (CROs).
Weinstein said that, historically, less than 8 to 10 per cent of the firm's business is contracted through CROs but this is increasing because under strategic deals CROs are playing a greater role in vendor selection.
“As they do more of these general service contracts with strategic partners they are taking full control of the vendors that are going to be involved in the research projects… if you are a preferred provider for them some of the contract will start to be put through the CRO channels.”
“With that said we,” he continued “we still work with the sponsors but from an administrative perspective the contract would be held by the CRO.”