Icon to acquire ClinicalRM and strengthen offerings in government-sponsored research and vaccines

Dublin-based Icon is acquiring the specialty CRO Clinical Research Management, or ClinicalRM. Based in Frederick, Maryland, Clinic­alRM employs 500 people and provides full service and functional services to many U.S. government agencies and private sector sponsors. Their scope of reach is across basic and applied research, infectious diseases, vaccine development and testing and in response to bio-threats and global viral epidemics.

New NIH policy calls for a single IRB for multi-site clinical research

A newly issued policy from the NIH requiring a single institutional review board (IRB) for NIH-funded multi-site research may be a step toward an industry-wide mandate of centralized IRB review in the future. The goal of the policy, which will take effect May 25, 2017, “is to enhance and streamline the IRB review process in the con­text of multi-site research so that research can proceed as effectively and expeditiously as possible,” according to the NIH. When the policy was proposed last December, it garnered more than 150 comments, most in favor and some against.

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