Founding member of Align Clinical CRO to help create open technology standards that make it easier for CROs and sponsors to work together during trials

ICON plc, (NASDAQ: ICLR) today announced it is a founding member of Align Clinical CRO, a new industry technology standards group dedicated to making it easier for life sciences companies and contract research organizations (CROs) to collaborate during clinical trials. ICON is joining six leading CROs to create open technology standards intended to simplify trial execution and improve the productivity and efficiency of clinical trials.

Align Clinical CRO represents the first time global CROs are coming together to develop open technology standards to transform clinical trial operations across the life sciences industry. As part of Align Clinical CRO, ICON is committed to developing standards that drive greater consistency in study execution and accelerate product development in life sciences.

“The volume and type of data being generated per patient visit in clinical trials continues to grow exponentially, so technology standards to gather, manage and exchange this data is critical. Align Clinical CRO provides a unique opportunity to define these technology standards and better enable the life sciences industry to bring new drugs and devices to market faster,” commented Tom O’Leary, CIO at ICON.

ICON will work alongside members, with input from across the industry, to create standards intended to help increase sponsor and CRO productivity, reduce operational costs, and run faster trials. The group’s first standard is anticipated to be an Operational Data Exchange to facilitate seamless information sharing and make it easier for sponsors and CROs to work together during clinical trials.

“There is tremendous potential to enhance clinical trial execution with common technology standards that benefit the entire industry,” said Henry Levy, president of Align Clinical CRO. “The assembly of Align Clinical CRO represents an important industry collaboration to improve the trial process and how the industry works together to accelerate drug development.”

Visit AlignClinicalCRO.org to learn about the group’s mission and stay up-to-date on the standards in development.