22 June 2009 - SAS, the leader in business analytics, today announced that Shire, the global specialty biopharmaceutical company, has selected SAS® Drug Development as the platform for its clinical trials data.

"Shire is excited about our partnership with SAS, and we look forward to leveraging the SAS Drug Development platform to manage our clinical trial data," said Nick Ronca, Associate Director Clinical R&D, Shire Pharmaceuticals.

SAS Drug Development is available as a standalone or hosted solution with access via a secure, thin client. A centralised repository allows life sciences firms to aggregate, analyse and review clinical trials data to determine safety and efficacy outcomes.

"Our approach at SAS allows our customers, like Shire, to be more focused and efficient in developing and delivering medicines to patients and their families around the world," said Jason Burke, Global Director of Health and Life Sciences for SAS.

21 CFR and CDISC Compliant
SAS Drug Development allows rapid and reliable validation and implementation, eliminating strain on limited IT infrastructure and resources. The solution is compliant with global agency regulations, such as 21 CFR Part 11, which is often difficult to attain.

"Our hosted global environment contains a single view of the targeted clinical data in a secured and qualified environment so scientists, programmers and statisticians can view the most up-to-date, accurate information" said Burke.

SAS' scalability and flexibility were features important to Shire, which has grown rapidly through acquisitions and mergers over its nearly twenty-five year history. Shire, which has a presence in 23 countries and markets medicines in more than 45 countries, needed a global solution for managing and processing its clinical trial data.

"Working in unison with SAS allows Shire to focus on meeting its mission, and investing in its product portfolio instead of developing a complex IT infrastructure to support clinical data," said Burke.

SAS Implementation Team
Relying on the SAS Consulting Group that has successfully deployed SAS Drug Development in the past, Shire believes that the system will maximise the best practices of both Shire and SAS.

About SAS
SAS is the leader in business analytics software and services, and the largest independent vendor in the business intelligence market. Through innovative solutions delivered within an integrated framework, SAS helps customers at more than 45,000 sites improve performance and deliver value by making better decisions faster. Since 1976 SAS has been giving customers around the world The Power to Know®.

Further information (external website)