CROs turn to app platform to speed development of CTMS modules
Application developer Mendix, which has worked with CRO heavyweights Quintiles, PPD and inVentiv Health, just announced a partnership with Triumph Consultancy Services, a specialty life sciences consulting company, to push further into the clinical trial space.
Adam Clay, VP of North American field operations at Mendix, told us that CRO CIOs (chief information officers) are facing increasing amounts of pressure from their pharma and medical device clients to deliver more efficiencies as regulatory demands get more difficult and timelines shorten.
He said CROs have been turning increasingly to Mendix following “a couple notable wins…that has caused them to pay attention to us.”
This latest partnership may also push more CROs to Mendix as companies look to turn away from monolithic, off-the-shelf CTMS systems that can cost millions and take years to develop.
Prototypes of apps for study start up or vendor verification can be created “inside a matter of days… and then perfected into working versions that are properly tested and validated,” in between four and six months.
That’s still four to eight times faster than a typical employment of a CTMS module, Clay said.
He added that Mendix uses “executable models that are highly visual so business and IT teams can determine their end-to-end process needs.”
As far as concerns, Clay said companies sometimes worry that they won’t be able to maintain control of the application, which is essential in a highly regulated environment. “Fortunately for us, we don’t ask they surrender that control to build these things to regulatory standards, but it’s a mistake to think that the speed means a loss of control,” he added.
Deploying CTMS systems can be long and detailed process, he noted, adding that Triumph “can take what’s unique about each biopharma, CRO and medical device company and build these applications from them.”
Duncan Hall, Triumph CEO and founder, noted, “We want to make the systems supporting clinical trials as intuitive and easy to use as the apps on your smartphone or tablet—and our partnership with Mendix is a key enabler of this initiative.”
