Press Releases

New Biosurveillance Technology Company Formed in Research Triangle

MedNetics™ LLC today announces its formation and intention to become the biopharmaceutical industry's trusted steward for the surveillance of biomedical research knowledge. Based in the Research Triangle, the company expects to grow aggressively in the first year both in revenue and in number of employees as a subsidiary of Analytical Sciences, Inc. (ASI), a rapidly growing, privately held human health research organization.

"Our focus is to help biopharmaceutical customers protect, enhance and discover new value in the vital intellectual property of biomedical research and development," said Lee H. Evans, founder of MedNetics and a former SAS executive with extensive knowledge of technology systems for biopharmaceutical research. "We will do this by gathering disparate biomedical data from a wide range of sources and by creating secure, online knowledge exchanges that clients can access and analyze to streamline the discovery and development of new therapies."

President and chief executive officer of MedNetics, Evans is the former president and director of iBiomatics, the first software technology spin-off of SAS, the world's largest privately held global software company.

Don Holzworth, president and chief executive officer of ASI, predicts that MedNetics represents the future of the industry. His company's investment in MedNetics is based on that premise.

"It makes sense to finance a forward-thinking company like MedNetics," said Holzworth, a leading entrepreneurial force in the Research Triangle's health-care arena, and chairman of the board of MedNetics. "The industry is truly undergoing revolutionary changes, and we want to use ASI's success to support new efforts that further our global vision of enhancing human health through innovative science, technology and knowledge solutions."

Evans says MedNetics uses technology to achieve business efficiency. "We provide online collaboration services for biomedical research organizations—meaning that we build secure R&D environments to share vital, real-time information internally or with business partners to save money and create new markets."

"We are now entering the age of a new global biological economy," Evans added. "We will serve that economy to protect, enhance and speed access to intellectual property held in vast R&D knowledge repositories."

This speedy communication of knowledge can also prove vital as early-warning systems to enhance bio-defense efforts. "A critical missing link in bio-terrorism efforts is the rapid dissemination of standardized scientific data about patient populations," said Evans. "Protection of patients through speed and efficiency is a cornerstone of MedNetics."

According to a Tufts University study, it costs more than $800 million to bring a new therapy to patients. The Gartner Group, an IT analyst firm, says technology efficiency can save $2.5 million for each day shaved off approval of a new medicine. The market for systems to reduce R&D costs is between $5 billion and $7 billion. This huge market results from important economic and social realities, such as a desperate need for more collaboration and efficiency; the scarcity of patient volunteers; higher prescription drug costs; unrelenting political and patient advocate pressure for safer drug trials; and narrowing margins caused by skyrocketing R∓D costs in the development of new therapies. All of these concerns can be addressed more effectively with better online exchange of knowledge.

Evans noted that MedNetics revenue model is not tied to sales of drugs, and the company is not "an online CRO." "MedNetics is the industry's trusted steward of valuable, strategic information, so it is not appropriate for us to take a financial interest based on the success or failure of a therapy. We earn revenue when biomedical intellectual property is safe, secure and fully leveraged to protect human health."

MedNetics' strongly advocates industry standards, such as those created by the new Clinical Data Interchange Standards Consortium (CDISC). Evans said the creation of standards-based, online exchanges provides an economical way for emerging biotechnology and biopharmaceutical companies to outsource regulatory IT, yet remain in complete day-to-day control of their data, analyses and decisions. Companies could use MedNetics' services to work individually, together, or even to help market and sell their product knowledge online.

"It is frustrating for executives to have the data that describes valuable IP spread across many clinical research partners; it means that a huge part of their corporate value is not in their direct control," said Evans. "We turn hard-earned research into accessible intellectual property and put that property completely in the customer's control in a way that can facilitate the creation of new markets."

ASI's funding of MedNetics is one of several new initiatives aggressively pursued by the Durham-based human health research company over the past year. The company, which consists of four health-care business units, has grown at an annual rate of 42 percent over the past 10 years, including an impressive 48 percent performance last year. In Oct. of last year, ASI acquired United Information Systems, Inc., and now has an employee base of about 430 on $50 million in revenue. More recently, Holzworth helped raise $1.2 million in angel funding for Expression Analysis, Inc. (EA), a new genomic research services company, being incubated in ASI's Durham headquarters. Holzworth is doubling as EA's CEO.

Evans, who has also taken on a dual role as vice president of strategic initiatives for ASI, believes the solid foundation of ASI fulfills a critical need for MedNetics. "ASI is a company that has proved its success in the numbers year after year. It focuses on technology and people, and so as an investor and innovator, it has a keen understanding of this industry and is a perfect match for MedNetics."

Evans also serves on the Board of Discovery Machine, Inc., a new decision systems technology company for life sciences. He is a frequent speaker on the convergence of research health care and information technology, and serves in numerous industry and trade organizations. He plans to speak about biomedical information exchanges at the American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA) in Arizona this May and at the national Drug Information Association (DIA) meeting in Chicago in June.

About MedNetics™

MedNetics LLC is an innovative new biosurveillance technology company. A knowledge service provider, MedNetics offers online systems and services to aggregate biopharmaceutical R&D data sources, enhance scientific collaboration and discovery, and create new markets to benefit human health. The firm was founded in 2002 and is based in the Research Triangle area of North Carolina.

About ASI

Founded in 1983, ASI is a privately held, award-winning human health research organization dedicated to helping government and industry clients enhance human health through innovative science, technology and knowledge solutions. ASI offers professional support services in the areas of health communications, statistics, public health research, information technology, data management, clinical trials management, and peer review and grants management. In addition to its Durham headquarters, ASI maintains regional offices in Atlanta, Ga., Austin, Texas, and in Bethesda, Frederick and Silver Spring, Md.