Phase Forward Founder Steps Down from Day-to-Day Responsibilities
Phase
Forward (NASDAQ: PFWD), a leading provider of data management
solutions for clinical trials and drug safety, today announced that Paul
Bleicher, M.D., Ph.D. will step down from his day-to-day operational
responsibilities at the end of this month. Dr. Bleicher will remain a
member of the Phase Forward board while applying his proven
entrepreneurial talents as part of the founding team of a new venture in
the next-generation healthcare informatics market.
Dr. Bleicher’s departure points to the success
of the company he founded in 1997, which announced revenues for the
second quarter of 2008 of $40.9 million. Since its IPO in July 2004,
Phase Forward has posted 16 consecutive quarters of revenue growth,
resulting in a four year compound annual growth rate of over 23 percent.
The company holds the number 16 spot on the 2008 Globe
100, the Boston Globe’s list of the top
100 Massachusetts-based public companies.
"Paul’s
accomplishments speak for themselves,” said
Mr. Weiler. "Our position in the market today
underscores his success in implementing his vision for dramatically
optimizing the process by which pharmaceutical companies bring drugs to
market. Paul leaves us in an excellent position to continue to lead the
market’s accelerated adoption of technology
solutions for the life sciences industry. We wish Paul the best,
confident he will meet with similar success in his future endeavors and
pleased to have his continued guidance as a member of our board.”
During his time at Phase Forward, Dr. Bleicher cemented his reputation
as a strategic visionary in the field of pharmaceutical IT. Dr. Bleicher
pioneered the concept of Internet-based electronic data capture (EDC),
speaking and writing extensively about its role in the pharmaceutical
industry. Dr. Bleicher also helped introduce XML-based standards to the
pharmaceutical industry, and helped organize the initial effort to
create the Clinical Data Interchange Standards Consortium (CDISC)
Operational Data Model (ODM) standard. He also provided industry
leadership in the critical area of the regulatory implications of the
use of electronic systems in clinical trials.
Dr. Bleicher has been recognized with a number of industry awards for
his pioneering work. In 2002, he won the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of
the Year Award in New England. In 2005, he was recognized by PharmaVOICE
as one of the 100 most inspiring people in the life sciences industry.
Nationally, over the past 10 years he has held a variety of leadership
positions in his work with the Drug Information Association. Locally, in
2006 he was awarded Boston Business Journal’s
prestigious Champions in Health Care award, and in 2008 he joined the
Leadership Council of the Massachusetts Life Sciences Collaborative.
"I leave my day-to-day responsibilities at
Phase Forward filled with pride, and grateful to have played a
leadership role in the growth of such a committed, talented team,”
said Dr. Bleicher. "I look forward to
applying my entrepreneurial passion and experience to work in a newly
founded, next-generation healthcare information technology venture.”
Dr. Bleicher has served as Phase Forward’s
chairman since its inception. In connection with Dr. Bleicher’s
transition, effective November 1, 2008, Mr. Weiler will become chairman
of the company’s board of directors.
About Phase Forward
Phase Forward is a leading provider of integrated data management
solutions for clinical trials and drug safety. The company offers proven
solutions for electronic data capture (InFormTM),
phase I clinic automation (LabPasTM), clinical
data management (ClintrialTM), clinical trials
signal detection (CTSDTM), strategic
pharmacovigilance (Empirica SignalTM) and
Signal Management, adverse event reporting (Empirica TraceTM),
applied data standards (WebSDMTM) and
Web-integrated interactive response technologies (ClarixTM).
In addition, the company provides services in the areas of application
implementation, hosting and validation, data integration, business
process optimization, safety data management and industry standards.
Phase Forward’s products and services have
been utilized in over 10,000 clinical trials involving more than
1,000,000 clinical trial study participants at over 280 organizations
and regulatory agencies worldwide including: AstraZeneca, Boston
Scientific, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Eli Lilly, the U.S. Food and
Drug Administration, GlaxoSmithKline, Harvard Clinical Research
Institute, Merck Serono, Novartis, Novo Nordisk, PAREXEL International,
Procter & Gamble, Quintiles, sanofi-aventis, Schering-Plough Research
Institute, Servier, Tibotec and the U.K. Medicines and Healthcare
Products Regulatory Agency. Additional information about Phase Forward
is available at www.phaseforward.com.
Cautionary Statement
Certain statements made in this press release that are not based on
historical information are forward-looking statements which are made
pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities
Litigation Reform Act of 1995. This press release contains express or
implied forward-looking statements relating to, among other things,
Phase Forward's expectations and assumptions concerning management's
forecast of financial performance, the performance of Phase Forward's
products and services, future business and operations plans of Phase
Forward's customers, the ability of Phase Forward's customers to realize
benefits from the use of Phase Forward's products and services, and
management's plans, objectives and strategies. These statements are
neither promises nor guarantees, but are subject to a variety of risks
and uncertainties, many of which are beyond Phase Forward's control,
which could cause actual results to differ materially from those
contemplated in these forward-looking statements. In particular, the
risks and uncertainties include, among other things, changes in our
customers' industries; our ability to convince prospective customers to
adopt our solutions; competition; changing customer requirements;
governmental regulation; our ability to maintain profitability;
fluctuations in our operating results; long sales and implementation
cycles; our dependence on a limited number of customers or suppliers;
product performance; third party service interruptions or delays;
technology failures; our ability to maintain customer relationships and
contracts; our ability to retain and hire skilled personnel; our ability
to protect our intellectual property rights; product liability or
intellectual property infringement claims brought against us;
acquisitions; our ability to manage our rapid growth; our ability to
obtain capital when desired on favorable terms; and the volatility of
the market price of our common stock. Existing and prospective investors
are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking
statements, which speak only as of the date hereof. Phase Forward
undertakes no obligation to update or revise the information contained
in this press release, whether as a result of new information, future
events or circumstances or otherwise. For additional disclosure
regarding these and other risks faced by Phase Forward, see the
disclosure contained in Phase Forward's public filings with the
Securities and Exchange Commission including, without limitation, its
most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K.
