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REDWOOD SHORES, Calif.
16-JAN-2002 09:00 AM
Oracle Corporation (Nasdaq: ORCL), the world's largest enterprise software company, today announced it has signed an agreement to acquire NetForce, Inc., a California corporation and a leading supplier of systems for drug safety monitoring and reporting, subject to a number of conditions. The parties anticipate that the transaction will be consummated on or about January 25, 2002. The proposed acquisition of NetForce and the EventNet product would expand Oracle's integrated suite of applications for the life sciences industry, supporting both clinical trials and post-marketing surveillance.
By law, companies in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical-device industries must record and track product complaints and adverse events suspected to be associated with any of the company's marketed products. These "cases" must be analyzed and reported to the regulatory agencies in each country where the product is marketed -- typically within 15 days of the initial report. EventNet provides comprehensive facilities for gathering information about a case, validating that the information is complete and accurate, assessing whether the case is likely to be attributable to the company's product, and generating the necessary regulatory reports. EventNet also fully supports the new E2B standard for submitting the reports electronically.
EventNet is integrated with Oracle Clinical, Oracle's leading system for clinical data management and remote data capture. The adverse events recorded during clinical trials are thus entered consistently in the two systems, thereby helping improve timeliness, quality and accuracy. No other safety system supports this integrated functionality.
In addition to providing the regulatory reports, EventNet also provides facilities for early detection of adverse events that are unexpected or are occurring more often than is expected based on clinical trial results. As recent examples of product withdrawal have shown, safety problems that are not detected quickly can cause unnecessary patient injury or death and cost the company billions of dollars in damages. A system that supports proactive monitoring has therefore become critical to ensuring commercial success while protecting patient safety.
"The acquisition of NetForce would further extend Oracle's integrated product suite for drug development and post-marketing surveillance," said Sohaib Abbasi, senior vice- president of Oracle's Product Development Division. "With spiraling costs for drug development and an ever-present concern for patient safety, companies can no longer afford to have their clinical data and their safety data fragmented across separate systems. With EventNet, Oracle will be able to offer an integrated solution."
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