Mytrus Announces Innovation Advisory Board Made Up Of Powerhouse Clinical Trial And Patient-Focused Experts

BURLINGTON, Mass., March 18, 2014 /PRNewswire/ --inVentiv Health, a life science knowledge and services company for the new healthcare environment, announced today the creation of a new Innovation Advisory Board comprised of leading industry experts who will help shape the future of clinical products and services offered by Mytrus, a pioneer in electronic informed consent and leader in e-clinical technologies.

inVentiv Health holds an equity stake in the California-based company that is changing the game in how patients are enrolled in clinical trials to dramatically improve the process, increase retention and speed clinical trials.  

"The members of our new Innovation Board have held key positions in the pharmaceutical industry throughout their careers and have a long tradition of innovating improvements in clinical research," said Mytrus CEO Anthony Costello, who also will serve on Innovation Advisory Board. "We are grateful for their willingness to work with us and we share a common commitment to improving the clinical trial experience for patients."

Costello noted that research shows how better informed and more engaged patients lead to better research data and faster drug development timelines. "This group of experts have long recognized the importance of patient centricity in research and their input into our line of clinical trials technologies will be invaluable in helping us break new ground in trial improvement," he said.

The six Innovation Advisory Board members include:

Steven Cummings, MD is co-founder of Mytrus and a leading expert in the design and implementation of clinical research studies. Dr. Cummings, the Chief Scientific Officer at Mytrus, also serves as Director of the San Francisco Coordinating Center, Emeritus Professor of Medicine, Epidemiology and Biostatistics at UCSF and Senior Scientist at CPMC Research Institute and Innovator-in-Residence at Roche-Genentech.

David G. Forster, JD, MA, CIP, Chief Compliance Officer, WIRB-Copernicus Group joined the Western Institutional Review Board in 1996 and currently serves as Chief Compliance Officer as well as a co-chair on a subcommittee of the Health and Human Services Secretary's Advisory Committee on Human Research Protections.

Clay Johnston, MD, PhD is Dean of Medicine at the new University of Texas Dell Medical School in Austin. Dr. Johnston recently served as Director of the Clinical Translational Sciences Institute at the University of California, San Francisco, and is a leading expert in clinical trial methods.

Garry Neil, MD is Global Head of Research and Development at Medgenics and a leader in clinical trials innovation. At Johnson & Johnson, he served as Corporate Vice President of Science & Technology and Group President of Pharmaceutical Research and Development.  Dr. Neil also is a Founder/Director and served as CEO of TransCelerate Biopharma, Inc., a respected, cross-industry initiative to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of industrial biopharmaceutical R&D.

Dr. John Orloff, MD is Global Head of Clinical Development at Merck Serono. Dr. Orloff recently served as Chief Medical Officer and Senior Vice President, Global Development for Novartis Pharma AG where he led the "Trials of the Future" initiative to bring innovation to the drug development process. He also served as Head of U.S. Medical and Drug Regulatory Affairs for North America.

Jane Perlmutter, PhD, MBA is a psychologist and leading patient advocate for clinical trial participants. Dr. Perlumutter also serves on the Clinical Trials Transformation Initiative on Informed Consent.

Founded five years ago, Mytrus has become a leader in innovative e-clinical technologies with a focus on accessibility and usability for patients in clinical trials. The company's flagship product for direct to patient trials was first deployed by Pfizer in 2010 in the industry's first clinical research study allowing patients to participate entirely from home.

Since then, Mytrus has worked to develop a pioneering line of new patient-focused products for electronic informed consent, patient data collection and research results reporting on clinical trials.

About Mytrus
Founded in 2009, Mytrus is a California-based clinical technology and services company which is revolutionizing traditional clinical trials with its simple, efficient, and patient-centered technologies. Mytrus streamlines the clinical trial process, dramatically improving patient recruitment timelines, increasing patient retention and reducing overall study costs for sponsors.  At a time when bringing a drug to market can cost up to $1 billion, Mytrus provides solutions for pharmaceutical, biotech and device makers eager to find more cost effective ways to conduct research. Learn more about Mytrus at http://www.mytrus.com or find the company on Facebook and Twitter @mytrus.

About inVentiv Health
inVentiv Health, Inc., is a life science knowledge and services company purpose-built for the new healthcare marketplace. inVentiv has created a new model by converging a vast range of essential services to fully align with our client's development and commercialization goals. With more than 12,000 employees supporting clients in 70 countries, our global scale and broad expertise make us an attractive strategic partner for companies seeking to get medicines to patients in a complex operating, regulatory and reimbursement environment.  inVentiv Health's clients include more than 550 life sciences companies, including all 20 of the largest biopharmaceutical companies in the world. inVentiv Health, Inc. is privately owned by inVentiv Group Holdings, Inc., an organization sponsored by affiliates of Thomas H. Lee Partners, L.P., Liberty Lane Partners and members of the inVentiv management team. inVentiv Health transforms promising ideas into commercial reality for the financial success of our clients and the delivery of better treatments to patients worldwide. For more information, visit http://www.inVentivHealth.com.

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Contact:

Danielle DeForge

Director, Corporate Communications

inVentiv Health, Inc.

+1 781 425 4624

[email protected]

SOURCE inVentiv Health, Inc.