VirtualScopics, PPD Expand Ties

Medical imaging solution provider VirtualScopics (VSCP - Snapshot Report) has expanded its strategic collaboration with North Carolina-based leading contract research organization (“CRO”) Pharmaceutical Product Development (“PPD”) Inc.

The companies have extended their partnership in clinical and medical imaging to now include a range of therapeutic areas such as oncology, central nervous system, cardiovascular, general medicine and medical devices.

VirtualScopics collaborated, in October 2010, with PPD Inc., to deliver a set of clinical and medical imaging solutions to help biopharmaceutical companies to make rapid decisions in developing oncology compounds. The scope of the collaboration was limited to oncology.

Medical imaging plays a significant role in drug development. The expanded alliance will enable the entities to offer biopharmaceutical companies with state-of-the-art, integrated and customized imaging technologies, which will help them to make important development decisions on their compounds. The pooling of the technologies and expertise of the two entities will enable their clients to accelerate their drug development programs.

VirtualScopics offers its imaging solutions to pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical devices industries. The company provides a range of imaging software and applications that are used for image-based detection and measurement of anatomical structures and metabolic activity. VirtualScopics competes with BioClinica Inc (BIOC) and ICON plc (ICLR - Snapshot Report), among others.

The company remains committed to investing in infrastructure, services and additional technical and operational resources to address customer needs and broaden its global foothold.

Besides PPD, VirtualScopics also joined forces with Germany-based full-service CRO ABX-CRO in September 2010, which marked the union of two of the bellwethers in molecular imaging for the clinical trials of drugs and medical devices.

VirtualScopics’ third-quarter 2011 earnings of 2 cents a share beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate by a penny. The company’s profit (attributable to common stockholders) slid roughly 10.5% year over year, hurt by lower revenues which fell 9% year over year to $3.27 million.

VirtualScopics, in its third quarter call, noted that it has filed 510(k) with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (“FDA”) for its first personalized medicine application. Based on tepid third quarter results, the company reduced its sales forecast for fiscal 2011. VirtualScopics envisions sales to pick up in first-half 2012, in part, driven by the PPD alliance.