ICON Acquires Healthcare Research Consulting Firm

Icon plc has expanded its late Phase research business with the purchase of United Kingdom-based Oxford Outcomes, an international health outcomes consultancy. The deal adds Oxford’s range of patient reported outcomes, health economics and epidemiology capabilities, and offices in the United Kingdom, the United States and Canada to Icon’s offering.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Icon CEO Peter Gray said the merger will enable his firm to leverage Oxford’s expertise in health economics, outcomes research and epidemiology. “The biopharmaceutical industry and regulators are more than ever before using post-marketing studies to demonstrate efficacy and safety as well as the economic value of products,” Gray noted in a prepared statement. “Oxford Outcomes has grown to become a leader in its field and brings to Icon expertise in the fields of health economics, outcomes research and epidemiology.”

Gray’s comment was echoed by Elizabeth Thiele,, president of Icon’s late phase outcomes Research unit, who cited Oxford’s “blue chip client base” as an important factor in the deal. “We look forward to building on these long-standing relationships and offering existing Icon clients a more in-depth suite of outcomes services.”

Icon’s purchase of Oxford fits with the findings of a study the Dublin, Ireland-based contract research organization commissioned last year to examine the impact increased regulatory demand for post-market analysis has had on the drug sector.

A study conducted by IMS Health (a provider of market intelligence to the pharmaceutical and healthcare sectors) found that more than three out of four respondents (77 percent to be exact) believe safety rules introduced by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and European Medicines Agency have increased the resources required for drug development. The study solicited data from 140 industry specialists.

Icon specializes in the strategic development, management and analysis of programs that support clinical drug development – from compound selection to Phase I-IV clinical studies. The company employs about 7,800 people in 72 locations in 39 countries.