Cerner to Acquire Clinical Research Company Kantar Health
Cerner Corp. has announced an agreement to acquire Kantar Health, a data, analytics and real-world evidence and commercial research consultancy that is a division of Kantar Group and serves the life science industry. The deal is for $375 million in cash, subject to adjustment.
With this acquisition, Cerner officials say the Kansas City, Mo.-based health IT giant “plans to harness data to improve the safety, efficiency and efficacy of clinical research across life sciences, pharmaceuticals and healthcare at large. This acquisition is expected to allow Cerner’s Learning Health Network client consortium to more directly engage with life sciences for funded research studies.”
The Cerner Learning Health Network offers health systems complimentary access to a network of bi-directional, de-identified data resources. This access, according to company officials, aims to help advance research efforts and provides opportunities to generate revenue with funded research studies from life science companies. Kantar Health’s proprietary syndicated data products, including CancerMPact, Claritis, National Health & Wellness Survey, and its broader oncology, rare disease and multi-therapeutic expertise, are used today by all of the top 20 life science companies to further their real-world evidence, commercial and clinical research efforts, Cerner said in a press release announcement.
More than 50 health systems have joined the Cerner Learning Health Network since its launch earlier this year. Last week, Cerner announced it would be investing in Elligo Health Research, an integrated research organization that enables clinical trials with nationwide community-based health care practices. As a result of that investment, Cerner plans to enter into a commercial agreement to expand the data and tools available in the Cerner Learning Health Network to offer additional clinical trial resources to community and rural hospitals and physician practices. “This collaboration is expected to help accelerate clinical research timeframes, make clinical trials more broadly and easily accessible and reduce the costs associated with bringing a therapy to market,” Cerner officials said last week.
Part of the motivation for the Elligo investment is that health systems face significant obstacles such as patient recruitment, costs and access to clinical trial resources. Today, for example, the drug development process takes more than 17 years and costs approximately $2.5 billion. Cerner and Elligo will focus on helping reduce those obstacles health systems face to make clinical trials become more of a reality, regardless of the size, location or academic standing, said officials.
Regarding the Cerner-Kantar announcement, company executives said, “The combination of Cerner and Kantar Health is expected to enable a two-sided collaboration between providers and the pharmaceutical industry, where researchers can generate insights and use differentiated real-world data assets and expertise to address the most complex clinical research questions.”
Donald Trigg, president, Cerner, added, “Cerner launched the Learning Health Network with our provider clients to advance a shared vision: treat global diseases more effectively through an acceleration of clinical research. Kantar Health has incredible health economics and medical affairs expertise, differentiated real-world data assets and strong relationships with the world’s leading life science companies. It offers us an amazing opportunity to drive cross-industry collaboration that can change health outcomes around the world.”
The acquisition is anticipated to close in the first half of 2021, subject to regulatory approval, employee consultations and other conditions, and is not expected to have a material impact on Cerner’s earnings in 2021.
