PRA International Acquires Key Software Developer

RALEIGH, N.C., May 20, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- PRA International, a leading Clinical Research Organization, announces our recent acquisition of Kinship Technologies, a Chennai, India-based software developer and services company. PRA will obtain Kinship's industry changing system, EXACT, and is integrating the Kinship team to accelerate the development of technology solutions that will enhance PRA's service delivery and reshape how the industry manages trials and delivers trial data.

"The process of how data is converted and analyzed in our industry has remained unchanged for over 20 years; with the increasing prevalence of CDISC standards, we felt the need to significantly change the process to create a more efficient delivery model and provide our customers more validation and visibility into our work," said Steve Powell, PRA's Senior VP of Clinical Informatics & Late Phase Services. "When we found Kinship Technologies and implemented the EXACT system, we knew we had discovered a game changer."

Kinship's flagship product, EXACT, is a revolutionary system that allows users to quickly construct reusable programs for data extraction, data transformation, statistical reporting and electronic publishing in a visual environment with limited code writing. PRA will use the EXACT system to simplify and automate the production of multiple CDISC standards as well as tables, figures, and listings (TFLs) in reports.

"The EXACT system allows programmers and biostatisticians to spend more time delivering higher value services to our clients instead of spending time writing and validating programs that only extract, transform, or layout clinical data," said Jason Packwood, Vice President of PRA's Business Solutions group, which directs our systems management and process improvement projects. "Through its powerful global metadata repository, the Kinship product allows users to quickly produce SDTM and ADaM datasets, DEFINE.XML documents, and TFLs."

The Kinship EXACT product offers numerous benefits and features to PRA and our clients, including significant efficiencies, new library management capabilities, streamlined processes for documentation, and improved quality and reliability. By acquiring Kinship, which has been serving pharmaceutical and biotech companies since 1996, PRA also furthers a strategic initiative to establish a "center of excellence" for software product development, enabling PRA's commitment to leverage technology to improve clinical trials.

"Kinship is proud and excited to have merged with PRA," said Giri Balasubramanian, Director of Kinship Technologies. "PRA and Kinship share the same goals of transforming clinical trial processes by enhancing both the value and global presence of EXACT. We are committed to taking EXACT to the world's leading pharmaceutical organizations using our companies' expertise in product development."

PRA's goal is to create a high-quality, efficient, paperless, data-driven, end-to-end clinical management delivery process. In addition to the EXACT software, we have begun integrating other state-of-the-art eClinical solutions company-wide, to enhance client service and to position ourselves for future trends in trial delivery.

For more information about Kinship EXACT, please visit www.kinshiptech.com.

About PRA

PRA conducts clinical trials across all therapeutic areas in more than 80 countries and provides services in all phases of clinical development through its 40 global offices.

PRA's therapeutic expertise, global reach and project experience combined with its extensive local knowledge and differentiating philosophy—THE PERSONAL ELEMENT— enable its project teams to deliver consistent and on-time performance. This unique PRA philosophy recognizes that true client service comes only from trained, empowered and dedicated employees who are encouraged to be innovative and to use their personal commitment to accelerate the development life cycle.

To learn more about PRA International, please visit www.PRAinternational.com, email [email protected] or call our Global Headquarters at +1 (919) 786-8200.

SOURCE PRA International