cineConflict of Interest? WCG, Owner of CenterWatch, Acquires First Clinical Research, LLC
At the end of January, the WIRB-Copernicus Group®’s (WCG™) Market Intelligence & Insights Division announced its acquisition of First Clinical Research LLC, organizer of the MAGI (Model Agreements & Guidelines International) Clinical Research Conference. The organization “unifies the clinical research ecosystem” by facilitating communication and the sharing of best practices among members and publishes the Journal of Clinical Research Best Practices, a forum for sharing material of practical use in clinical research. The journal reaches 50,000 subscribers every month.
Norman M. Goldfarb, MBA, CRCP, founder and managing director of First Clinical Research, will become WCG’s chief collaboration officer. He will be responsible for expanding MAGI’s presence and accelerating WCG’s development and participation in collaborative initiatives that “deliver value to the industry.”
In 2016 WCG added “the passionate, highly-accomplished experts of the CenterWatch organization” to its family of companies and Ken Getz to its board of directors.” According to Donald A. Deieso, PhD, chairman and CEO of WCG, “In order for clinical research to function more efficiently, we must open up the pathways of communication and connectivity among its chief participants. Sponsors and contract research organizations (CROs) rely on investigators, investigators rely on willing patients, and patients and practitioners increasingly rely on technology-driven solutions to keep informed of relevant clinical trials. WCG and CenterWatch will contribute to the promising future of a well-integrated ecosystem providing unprecedented access to critical information and knowledge among all trial participants, and in so doing, make an even greater positive impact on the clinical research process.”
There seems to be a conflict of interest. Is WCG doing clinical research or reporting objectively on it?
WCG describes itself as “the world’s leading provider of solutions that measurably improve the quality and efficiency of clinical research.” As “the industry’s first clinical services organization (CSO),” WCG claims that it “enables biopharmaceutical companies, CROs, and institutions to accelerate the delivery of new treatments and therapies to patients, while maintaining the highest standards of human subject protections.”
Still, First Clinical Research “joins clinical trial publishing leaders CenterWatch and FDANews as members of WCG’s Market Intelligence & Insights division, connecting the many members of the clinical research ecosystem and keeping them well informed” by delivering newsletters, books, databases, market intelligence reports, conferences and webinars. In 2016, WCG said that WCG and CenterWatch would “contribute to the promising future of a well-integrated ecosystem providing unprecedented access to critical information and knowledge among all trial participants, and in so doing, make an even greater positive impact on the clinical research process.”
How can a company be a purveyor of CRO services while operating journals that provide unbiased opinions of ongoing research? One wonders what WCG will buy next.
