The purchase of the Provantis portal remote study monitoring tool comes a little more than a year after Instem launched the technology, which is designed to allow sponsors to view data from their on-going studies on-demand on a secure site that can be accessed from any internet browser.
“The speed and quality of communications made possible by the Provantis portal supports our commitment to better serve our customers globally through high-quality services,” Neil Donaldson, VP of Asian and European Operations at Instem, said.
Instem established a full-service office in Shanghai, recruited local staff and has localized the Provantis product suite into Mandarin Chinese.
In addition, Instem will provide supporting international organizations and domestic laboratories using on-site systems a delivery model from a professionally managed data center based in Shanghai.
Wuxi previously partnered with Instem in 2009 on a preclinical research monitoring tool, which it used to automate study processes at its drug toxicology testing facility in Suzhou, China.
New China JV chief
News of the Chinese CRO’s acquisition of Provantis coincides with the news that ex-Theorem CEO James Pursey has been hired as president and general manager of the joint venture organisation Wuxi and PRA set up in Shanghai earlier this year.
“WuXi’s mission is to create a broad, integrated platform of R&D services that will allow anyone and any company to develop new medicines efficiently and cost effectively,” Stephen Mason, VP of operations for preclinical services at Wuxi said.
It is unclear whether the JV – named WuxiPRA - will be offering the Provantis data portal system to the pharmaceutical companies with which it works.