Pharm-Olam International Ltd. (POI) ,a multi-national full service CRO to pharmaceutical and biotech industries, announces an agreement to acquire StatWorks, Inc., a biostatistics and data management firm based in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina. The acquisition is expected to close by June 30, 2011.

“I am very excited that Pharm-Olam has reached an agreement to acquire StatWorks. Their addition compliments our biometrics staff, expands our customer base, and gives Pharm-Olam a local presence in Research Triangle Park,” said John Hovre, chief operating officer. “Because of our accelerating growth in contracts, customers, and backlog we will continue to aggressively explore the acquisition of other CROs to provide cost-effective global clinical research services.”

This acquisition is part of POI’s continued expansion strategy which started last year with the acquisition of a Canadian CRO that added data management, biostatistics and medical safety departments to its existing Canadian operations.

Suzanne Hackett, StatWorks’ founder, will join POI as its vice president of Biostatistics. She has over 20 years of experience in biostatistics and drug development. Hackett's experience is broad, encompassing a variety of therapeutic areas and statistical components of the development process, including protocol design and sample size calculations, analysis plans, randomization schedules, statistical analysis, DSMB Committee participation, and project management.

Mark Paul of StatWorks will join as POI’s vice president of Biometric Sales. Prior to joining StatWorks, Paul served in various management positions for a large, multinational contract research organization as well as in several start-up clinical development companies. Paul has also performed operational and financial oversight for several large scale projects and NDA submissions.

Pharm-Olam International is a multi-national contract research organization offering a wide range of comprehensive, clinical research services to the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device industries.