Oracle announced today that it will acquire Relsys International Inc., a maker of drug safety and risk management applications tailored to give pharmaceutical, life sciences, and even medical device companies greater control over and visibility into the end-to-end processes of drug safety management.
Privately held Relsys will be folded into Oracle’s Health Sciences Global Business Unit at the deal’s close, which Oracle expects sometime in the first half of 2009. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.
The Relsys flagship product, Argus Safety, is an adverse-effect data management and regulatory reporting tool. Built on a single global database to track case reports regardless of where in the world they originated, the Argus suite includes risk management, analytics, pharmacovigilance quality assurance, and reporting tools, among other capabilities. The Web-based Argus software is built on an open, modular architecture that easily integrates with Oracle applications, the companies said today.
While Oracle has yet to define a product roadmap or integration timeline, officials said they believe the combination of Relsys’ offerings and Oracle’s technology, including its database, collaboration tools, ERP, and CRM, will provide a comprehensive safety and risk management solution that spans clinical work, post-market surveillance, and patient care.
Relsys has more than 100 customers, including 21 out of the top 50 global pharmaceutical companies. Currently, several Relsys customers are using Oracle database technology. Among its partners Relsys lists IBM’s Cognos, SAP’s BusinessObjects, and Axway (now merged with Cyclone Commerce). After the close of the acquisition, Oracle will continue to support customers that use the Relsys solution with non-Oracle supporting technology, the company said in a statement.
Oracle established its Health Sciences Global Business Unit last summer to offer a suite of software for clinical development to healthcare companies struggling with increased regulatory scrutiny, the risk of late-stage drug failures, and the complexity of managing silos of information related to diagnostic tests, prescription data, and insurance claims. The Relsys acquisition is Oracle’s latest attempt to provide a comprehensive approach to help customers solve all of these problems.
“The health sciences industry is increasing investments in software that provide[s] greater transparency into drug safety and help[s] improve the overall safety of therapies,” said Neil de Crescenzo, senior vice president and general manager, Oracle Health Sciences, in today’s statement. “With the addition of Relsys, Oracle is uniquely positioned to help our customers improve drug safety by delivering a comprehensive software solution that enables our vision of integrated safety and risk management supported by advanced analytics,” he added.
Oracle has been developing its own Adverse Events Reporting Systems (AERS), which the company says it will continue to support post-acquisition. Furthermore, until the acquisition is complete, Relsys will continue to update and support its products. Once it becomes an Oracle entity, the company will have access to Oracle’s $2.8 billion R&D budget, which it said will help accelerate innovation within the Argus portfolio.