The merger allows the two CROs to offer data analytics capabilities on de-identified data of about one million active patients receiving care at DaVita HealthCare Partners’ centers, including 170,000 US dialysis patients receiving care from DaVita Kidney Care and 836,000 multi-specialty patients receiving care from HealthCare Partners. Terms of the merger were not disclosed and no employees will be laid off.
“We see great synergy in the joining of these...The best way to capture the value in the combination of these groups is to let them come together naturally. The support to join the teams comes from the teammates themselves,” Amy Young, VP and general manager for DaVita Clinical Research, told Outsourcing-Pharma.com. “Both groups did late phase research, but not in ways that are duplicative. Our combined clinical trials capability now has a broad reach both geographically and therapeutically. Our HEOR [health economics and outcomes research] capability has always been strong in the area of chronic disease epidemiology. We now have tremendous data access and insights to add to that already strong scientific capability.”
Young added that since 1997, DaVita has been a leader in kidney-related trials, epidemiology and data analytics.
"HealthCare Partners' extensive patient database is diverse and reflects real-world evidence in an integrated care organization," said Riya Pulicharam, medical director of late phase research and clinical outcomes at HealthCare Partners Clinical Research. "We have conducted clinical trials across multiple therapeutic areas for more than 10 years, and combining our clinical research and data analytics capabilities with DCR greatly enhances our ability to meet additional clients' needs."
The combined entity's capabilities include claims, pharmacy and electronic health record data analysis. The combined organization's assets will help boost research-study enrollment and retention, offer access to nearly a million primary care and multi-specialty patients, as well as 280,000 CKD and ESRD patients.
The merger will also build on the intellectual, financial and human resources necessary to support the analysis of burden-of-illness studies to budget impact models to market-sizing assessments.