Biometric Research Institute Inc. (BRI) and Brookwood Statistics Ltd.of England, two independent contract research organizations (CRO),have completed a merger. BRI, based in Washington, is the holdingcompany and Brookwood, a wholly owned subsidiary, has been renamedBRI International Ltd. The merger was accomplished through an exchangeof stock in which Brookwood owns 10 percent of BRI, Joan Alper,BRI's vice president of business development, told BioWorld."There is a greater and greater demand from sponsor companies fortrue international services," said Alper, noting that BRI alreadyhas a collaborative arrangement with Clinical Medicine InformationCenter, a Tokyo-based CRO. "There's very little overlapin the Brookwood/BRI collaboration. They're very complementary. Nowwe have all three of these geographical areas covered with clinical,regulatory and data management and statistical services."The combined company has a staff of about 230 with offices inWashington, San Francisco, San Diego, the U.K. and Belgium. Alpersaid BRI's 1994 revenues are projected at $19 million and Brookwood'sat $3 million."They are the largest independent statistical and data managementfirm in Europe," Alper said, and will add regulatory and clinicalcapabilities in the near term. Those services can be offered in themeantime through the sister company in Brussels, she said.Frank Hurley, chairman and CEO of BRI, said, "We feel that giventhe current economic pressures in the health-care industry, sponsorcompanies can no longer afford to develop products for a singlemarket. BRI is currently working on six global developmentprograms. The merger with this highly regarded European CRO willenlarge our scope in offering enhanced global development capabilitiesto our clients." BRI, founded in 1971, offers development planning,clinical trials management, data management, statistical analyses,50 clinical research associates across the U.S., clinicalsupplies and support and other services."We were first a statistical firm, then became a leader inregulatory strategy development," Alper said. "We have alwaysimplemented clinical trials management for clients and mostrecently we've added an expert monitoring group across the U.S." n

-- Jim Shrine

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