National Cancer Institute of Canada Clinical Trials Group Selects Medidata Solutions to Provide Clinical Trial Management.

NEW YORK -- Cancer Treatment Research Organization Leverages Medidata's Rave EDC Solution & Therapeutic Category Expertise to Streamline Clinical Trials

Medidata Solutions, a global provider of electronic clinical data capture, management and reporting solutions, today announced the National Cancer Institute of Canada Clinical Trials Group (NCIC CTG) has chosen Medidata Rave as its electronic data capture (EDC) solution to conduct and analyze national and international trials of cancer therapy. The NCIC CTG plans to conduct at least 30 Phase I-III trials using Medidata Rave over five years in Canada, the United States and Europe.

Founded in 1971, the NCIC CTG develops, conducts and analyzes national and international trials of cancer therapy, and has enrolled more than 45,000 patients from around the world in more than 300 clinical trials. The NCIC CTG's Director Dr. Joseph Pater had been involved in the restructuring of the cancer clinical trials program in the United Kingdom and first learned about Rave from Medidata's work with UK's National Cancer Research Network.

After a lengthy vendor review process, the NCIC CTG selected Medidata Rave 5.5 for its ease of integration with existing legacy systems, in addition to its flexibility in handling the exchange between clinical trial sites and sponsoring organizations. Rave's global management capabilities will assist in the knowledge transfer implementation required by the NCIC CTG. The NCIC CTG also anticipates that Rave will allow the Group to conduct more trials with high quality data without increasing its staffing. Using Rave, data will go through a series of edit checks and investigators are able to find and correct mistakes themselves.

"In our vendor evaluation, we could immediately see that Medidata Rave was built for people experienced in conducting clinical trials and responsive to their needs, mimicking the way we do our work," said Dr. Pater. "By implementing Rave, we anticipate a reduction in the number of data queries and time it takes to receive quality data. Overall, the system will change the way we work in a very positive way."

The NCIC CTG first began investigating EDC solutions at the recommendation of the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research (OICR), which has a program to fund the enhancement of cancer research infrastructure. OICR is a center of excellence in cancer research with a focus on discovery of new concepts and translation of research findings into programs, technologies and therapies. OICR's programs accelerate the development and testing of innovative cancer therapies.

"The OICR was impressed with Medidata's role in international developments in cancer research, and saw their EDC solution as the primary way for the NCIC CTG to improve efficiencies," said Dr. Bob Phillips, the OICR's chief operating officer. "Medidata Rave will streamline the way the organization is able to safely and securely collect and analyze quality data, allowing the completion of more clinical trials to move closer to delivering life-enhancing cancer treatments."

"The NCIC CTG's extensive clinical trials experience nicely aligns with Medidata's expertise in assisting with cancer research organizations around the world," said Tarek Sherif, CEO and co-founder of Medidata Solutions. "The NCIC CTG will be able to easily integrate Medidata Rave with other applications in their clinical suite and implement the system with a limited number of resources, while simultaneously allowing the resources they do have to become more efficient."

About National Cancer Institute of Canada

The National Cancer Institute of Canada Clinical Trials Group (NCIC CTG), funded by the Canadian Cancer Society and based at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, Canada, develops, conducts and analyzes national and international trials of cancer therapy, including trials for new cancer drugs, cancer prevention and supportive care to improve quality of life for people with cancer. Since its inception in 1971, the NCIC CTG has enrolled more than 45,000 patients from Canada and around the world in over 300 clinical trials.

About Ontario Institute for Cancer Research

The Ontario Institute for Cancer Research (OICR) is a not-for-profit corporation established in 2005 with funding from the Government of Ontario through the Ministry of Research and Innovation. OICR is enhancing Ontario's cancer research capacity by recruiting more than 50 internationally recognized principal investigators over the next three years. The programs of the Ontario Cancer Research Network, established in 2002, have been incorporated into OICR. They include the Ontario Tumour Bank, Cancer Research Fund, Clinical Trials Programs and the Ontario Cancer Research Ethics Board.

About Medidata Solutions Worldwide

Medidata Solutions helps the world's leading pharmaceutical, biotechnology, medical device and research organizations maximize the value of their clinical research investments. Innovative process design, technology and services streamline clinical trials by providing early visibility to reliable clinical data - the lifeblood of every research organization. Working with companies and institutions both large and small, Medidata Solutions helps clinical researchers safely accelerate the process of bringing life-enhancing treatments to market - on five continents and in more than 70 countries. Medidata Solutions brings significant value to its broad client base with deep clinical experience and expertise in more than 20 therapeutic areas, projects in Phase I, II, III, IV, registries and surveillance, and studies with thousands of investigators and tens-of-thousands of subjects. For more information, please visit www.mdsol.com.