Bioclinica says pricing in imaging sector has stabilised; expects 8% top line growth

09-Feb-2012 - Last updated on 09-Feb-2012 at 12:15 GMT

Bioclinica says pricing in the clinical imaging sector has stabilised as Pharmas have opted to work with fewer service providers.

CEO Mark Weinstein told attendees at UBS’ 22nd Annual Global Healthcare Services Conference that while pricing had been an issue for Bioclinica's imaging business, the emergence of new CRO-sponsor partnering models has changed the dynamics of the market.

”If you look at the imaging part of our business which is more focused towards large Pharma, most of those contracts go through outsourcing groups and …we have rate cards established with each of those and there were price concessions given as part of that rate card production.”

“Most pharma at this point have gone down from two to four preferred providers and we do think that’s stabilised, “ he said adding that “quite honestly in 2011 a lot of those pricing reductions were already in effect.”

On the electronic data capture (EDC) side of Bioclinica’s business Weinstein was similarly positive.

“We have a very price competitive offering and we don’t run into pricing issues very often. We are usually below Medidata and the Oracle Solutions.”

2011 Results

Weinstein also hinted that Bioclinica’s 2011 results – which a will be released later today before market opening – are likely to be positive.

He said: “If you annualise [our nine-month results] it’ll show top-line growth of 8.5 per cent and close to double that on the bottom line. So we are showing operating leverage in the business.”

He also predicted that Bioclinica’s adjusted Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization (EBITDA) for 2011 will be around $11m (€8.2m), which would be an increase of around 24 per cent year-on-year.

Integrated solution opportunities?

In the Q&A session at the end of his presentation Weinstein also discussed some of the areas Bioclinia is looking at to complete its offering – which the industry hot topics of patient reported outcomes (PRO) and safety being among the potential targets.

“Areas that we do look at are…patient reported outcomes, which would lead into the safety area and post-approval studies. There is also the whole area of safety in core clinical trials.”