Oracle Acquisition Expands Presence In Pharmaceutical Industry

Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. Oracle said it expects to complete the acquisition by mid-2012.

ClearTrial's activity-based costing applications (ClearTrial Plan, ClearTrial Source and ClearTrial Track) are used for planning, sourcing and tracking clinical projects, improving the accuracy and financial performance of drug trials. Current customers include Abbott, AstraZeneca, Baxter, Genentech, Merck and Sanofi.

Oracle will combine ClearTrial's technology with clinical-trial execution and analysis software it already markets as part of its Oracle Health Sciences Cloud, "creating the most comprehensive closed-loop clinical trial management offering from planning to payment," the company said.

"Adding ClearTrial to the Oracle Health Sciences Cloud will help our customers streamline the clinical development process and help them bring therapies to market with greater predictability and at lower costs," said Neil de Crescenzo, senior vice president and general manager, Oracle Health Sciences, in a statement.

In April 2010 Oracle acquired Phase Forward, a developer of software used by life sciences and pharmaceutical companies for managing clinical trials when testing new drugs and medical devices. That acquisition cost Oracle $685 million.

In March 2009 Oracle bought Relsys International, which marketed software used to track and analyze drug safety information. The cost of that deal wasn't disclosed.