Phase Forward and Merck project wins the Society for Clinical Data Management Data Driven Innovation Award

Phase Forward (NASDAQ: PFWD), a leading provider of data management solutions for clinical trials and drug safety, today announced that a joint project with customer Merck & Co. has won the 2009 Society for Clinical Data Management (SCDM) Data Driven Innovation Award competition. This annual honor recognizes the year’s best advancement in clinical data management technology or service.

The award was announced last week at the 2009 SCDM Annual Conference, the industry’s largest education event for clinical data management professionals. The Phase Forward/Merck project was selected from among five industry finalists.

The winning project and new solution, Direct Data Loader, more efficiently loads external data, such as lab safety and biomarker data. As a result, external data can be integrated more rapidly and accurately into Merck’s electronic data capture (EDC) system – Phase Forward’s InForm™ solution.

With Direct Data Loader, the load rate into the InForm system was increased from a maximum 1,000 records per hour with the previous solution, to an estimated 100,000 records per hour. The new solution also improved the “data currency” within InForm trials, especially as related to activities that depend on data reporting, including time-sensitive Serious Adverse Event reporting efforts. Direct Data Loader has proven to be instrumental in eliminating the backlog of unloaded data, preventing future backlog and saving staff time.

“We’re honored to share this award recognizing the creative and collaborative efforts of the Merck/Phase Forward team,” said Bob Weiler, chairman and CEO, Phase Forward. “From its inception, when the team solicited feedback from stakeholders in the process to define the project, through its development and implementation, the team focused on its objectives of delivering a high performance solution while achieving the greatest business benefit possible.”

“SCDM was thrilled with the quantity and quality of entries in the third annual Data Driven Innovation Award,” said Brenda Hoeper, conference co-chair. “We feel privileged to recognize innovations in the CDM discipline that have demonstrated evidence of adding value to the clinical trial process.”