Parexel celebrates 30 years of change, growth

When Swiss businessman Josef von Rickenbach launched a regulatory consulting company called Parexel three decades ago, no one thought there was much opportunity for the business. Boy, were those skeptics wrong. Over the past 30 years, Parexel has grown into a $1.4 billion global company—and one of the top biopharmaceutical service organizations in the world. The CRO, which now operates in more than 70 locations worldwide and employs about 13,300, has evolved into a provider of a broad range of services to the biopharmaceutical industry—including integrated clinical development, regulatory affairs consulting, commercialization services and technologies that expedite time-to-market. As a pioneer in the CRO industry, von Rickenbach has had considerable influence in defining this new sector…

Strategies for increasing patient diversity in trials

The problem has plagued the industry for many years: how do you get more minorities to participate in clinical trials? The task of increasing diversity among trial participants is seeing renewed interest because of a growing U.S. minority population—along with the ability to target drugs to more specific groups and the need to tap these narrower patient populations. More drug makers are setting up task forces and holding seminars on how to improve racial and ethnic diversity in trials, according to Ken Getz, director of sponsored programs and assistant professor at the Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development. He says the pressure for more targeted medicines comes from policy makers, payers and regulators…

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