eResearch's Profits Soar

Philadephia,Pa.-based eClinical company eResearch Technology (eRT) saw nearly a 60% increase in its first quarter revenues with $33.7 million compared to $21.1 million in the first quarter of 2007. Its net income soared 155.6% to $5.7 million (or $0.11 per share) from $2.2 million (or $0.04) a year earlier.

“Bookings were strong across all phases, but especially in Phase I and Phase III studies. The integration of the CCSS acquisition is proceeding on schedule, and we are meeting with clients to begin the transition process of individual studies,” said Michael McKelvey, eRT’s chief executive officer.

eRT also reported bookings of $50.1 million in new business compared to $29.7 million over the same period last year, including seven new thorough ECG study agreements valued at $1 million each.

Recently eRT received Operational Data Model (ODM) certification from the Clinical Data Interface Standards Consortium (CDISC) for eRT’s electronic data capture product EXPert.

ODM one the industry’s most used standard for using clinical related data. According to the company, eRT was also the first adopter of Health Level Seven (HL7) electrocardiogram standards and the European adverse event reporting standard E2B.

"eRT is a strong proponent of standards to assist the transport and processing of digital clinical data to improve medical research," remarked McKelvey. "eRT was the first adopter of Health Level Seven's electrocardiogram standard, an early adopter of the E2B European standard for adverse event reporting, and now we have a certified product compliant with CDISC's ODM standard."