BC Platforms Acquires 4Pharma, a Leading International Provider of Medical Research Data and Analytics Services for Global Clinical Trials and Real World Data

BC Platforms Acquires 4Pharma, a Leading International Provider of Medical Research Data and Analytics Services for Global Clinical Trials and Real World Data

1 June 2023 - Zurich, Switzerland - BC Platforms (BCP), a global leader in healthcare data management and analytics, today announces the acquisition of 4Pharma Ltd, a well-established contract research organization providing medical research services to pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and medical device companies. Financial details are not disclosed. The acquisition expands BCP’s global service offering for accelerating the translation of innovations into clinical practice. In addition, 4Pharma customers will benefit from additional services in the field of RWD through the BC Platform technology.

4Pharma (HQ Turku, Finland and Lund, Sweden) was founded over twenty years ago, and has collaborations with around 70 clients in the Nordics, Central Europe, and the US. The company has developed significant expertise in a broad range of therapeutic areas including oncology, neurology, ophthalmology, musculoskeletal, respiratory diseases, infectious diseases, and gynecology. The company provides medical research services in several areas: high-quality and cost-effective solutions for the management and delivery of clinical trial data, including Real World Data; medical writing; patient safety data collection, analysis, and reporting including data visualization; trial design & interpretation; health technology assessment; supporting global regulatory submissions to the FDA (USA), EMA (Europe) and PMDA (Japan); and risk-based patient monitoring. With this acquisition BCP bolsters its capabilities in these valuable areas for drug development and clinical research which further diversifies its service portfolio for pharma and biotech clients.

Tero Silvola, CEO at BC Platforms, said, “This exciting acquisition of the excellent 4Pharma brings impressive healthcare data intelligence expertise. It aligns with our vision to build a world leading analytics platform to enable the pharmaceutical industry’s advancement of precision medicine, improving the efficiency of drug development and patient outcomes. This expands our service offering to healthcare and lifesciences customers, as well as connecting data partners in a global, interoperable federated network. We combine omics and clinical data assets around the world, without compromising data privacy and security. This enables our customers to conduct novel research and discover fascinating new insights to advance healthcare which are fundamental to helping patients receive better treatments and care.”

Tero Oinonen, CEO at 4Pharma, said “4Pharma’s business has thrived for two decades through providing state-of-the-art biostatistics, data management and medical writing services by highly experienced pharmaceutical industry professionals. Our clinical trial data management and statistical expertise have been at the heart of several successful global regulatory submissions to the world’s leading regulators in the USA, Europe, and Japan, and we have done hundreds of clinical studies for our global clients. Our team has a wealth of top-quality industry expertise which takes our clients beyond their data. We are thrilled to join forces with BCP.  There are clear synergies and shared values between our companies, including a possibility to combine novel technology, BCP’s data network and 4Pharma’s biostatistics and data management  services. We share a data driven mindset and an open-minded dedication to science, which can propel the provision of healthcare data management and analytics to new heights.”

Laurent Samama, Managing Partner at Jolt Capital, said, “When we led last November’s USD 20 million growth equity financing of BC Platforms it was to underpin the company’s position as Europe’s leading Real World Data provider. Today’s synergistic acquisition is precisely aligned with that plan, with 4Pharma’s holistic expertise in life sciences research and development including regulatory knowledge boosting the already phenomenal power in BCP’s genomic data discovery and analytics platforms. We believe this is a perfect time to grow rapidly and ensure we can provide enterprise level solutions to our primary target segments.”

The acquisition is due to complete by end Q2 where Tero Oinonen becomes Executive VP, North-Europe for BCP. It grows BCP’s capabilities in providing ‘data intelligence’ analytics services to its clients. The company’s focus is on incorporating machine learning and artificial intelligence into generating useable clinical, and drug development, insights from Real World Data.