Accenture and BioQ have formed an eHealthcare solutions alliance.
Consulting firm Accenture and life sciences software firm BioQ yesterday announced that they will form an alliance to develop, market and implement solutions supporting regulatory intelligence and knowledge management throughout the R&D and regulatory processes.
The alliance will bring together Accenture’s experience in the industry and advanced technology skills with BioQ’s knowledge in creating interactive intelligent agent-based knowledge management, distance learning and collaboration tools, and experience in navigating the regulatory approval process. As part of the agreement, Accenture will receive an equity stake in BioQ and will become the main provider of business integration services for the company’s software and content management tools.
BioQ’s intelligent-agent-based system can learn and respond to user preferences to deliver scientific, regulatory and other pharmaceutical information, based on the user’s profile. As well as searching external resources, BioQ’s software accesses internal databases and knowledge sources. In the future, the company plans to add distance learning and collaboration tools to support regulatory compliance and electronic submissions.
According to Accenture’s Mary Jo Veverka, While pharmaceutical companies and regulatory authorities have invested significant resources to convert paper submissions to electronic formats, it’s the added ability to address the quality and content within those submissions that positions this alliance to help bring better medicines to market more quickly.
As Ms Veverka notes, global biopharmaceutical companies have already invested significantly in software for improving the drug development and submissions process. For each investment made, significant time is devoted to implementing, validating and training staff on new programs. Still, the move to electronic technologies for clinical trials and new drug submissions has been slow, and a significant level of opportunity remains for companies to enter the market successfully. Accenture and BioQ, with their breadth of industry experience, are better positioned to do so than many other, lesser-known players.
