RALEIGH, N.C., Aug 20 (Bernama-GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- PRA Health Sciences (NASDAQ: PRAH) announced today that Symphony Health, the company’s data solutions division, has expanded its global data services by entering into a strategic partnership with Close-Up International, a leading Latin American-based provider of medical prescription and sales audits.

“The agreement with Close-Up represents a significant milestone in Symphony Health’s commitment to expanding our services internationally,” said Doug Fulling, President of Symphony Health. “The presence across up to a dozen geographies adds a critical component to Symphony’s offerings that will build and strengthen relationships for both organizations in the United States and Latin America. The data solutions and insights available through Symphony and Close-Up International will drive future drug development and commercialization strategies.”  

This alliance officially brings together two global leaders with the unique experience, knowledge and insight to collaboratively work to bring innovative products, services, and solutions to the pharmaceutical and life sciences marketplace. The organizations will exclusively distribute one another’s retail and non-retail data in their respective geographies.

“As we build this alliance, we are focused on bringing greater value to our clients who operate in both of our geographies, helping them to achieve their business objectives while working with the leading providers of data solutions and insights,” stated Norberto Bonaparte, CEO and founder of Close-Up International. “We are committed to bringing innovative solutions to the market as part of this alliance that will benefit our clients’ growth strategies.”

ABOUT PRA HEALTH SCIENCES
PRA (NASDAQ: PRAH) is a full-service global contract research organization, providing a broad range of product development and data solution services to pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies around the world. PRA’s integrated services include data management, statistical analysis, clinical trial management, and regulatory and drug development consulting. PRA’s global operations span 90 countries across North America, Europe, Asia, Latin America, South Africa, Australia and the Middle East, and more than 16,000 employees. Since 2000, PRA has participated in more than 3,800 clinical trials. In addition, PRA has participated in the pivotal or supportive trials that led to U.S. Food and Drug Administration or international regulatory approval of more than 85 products. To learn more about PRA, please visit www.prahs.com.

INVESTOR INQUIRIES: InvestorRelations@prahs.com
MEDIA INQUIRIES:
Laurie Hurst, Director, Communications and Public Relations
HurstLaurie@prahs.com, +1.919.786.8435

ABOUT SYMPHONY HEALTH
A wholly owned subsidiary of PRA Health Sciences, Symphony Health is a leading provider of high-value data, analytics, and technology solutions for biopharmaceutical manufacturers, healthcare providers, and payers. The company helps clients understand disease incidence, prevalence, progression, treatment and influences along the patient and prescriber journeys by connecting and integrating a broad set of primary and secondary data, and providing health research, analytics and consulting expertise. Symphony Health derived data improves health management decisions, and helps clients drive revenue growth while providing critical insights on how to effectively adapt to the changing healthcare ecosystem. For more information about Symphony Health, please visit www.symphonyhealth.prahs.com.

ABOUT CLOSE-UP INTERNATIONAL
Close-Up International is the creator of the first medical prescription audits of the pharmaceutical market in the world, having started in 1968 its expansion to all Latin American countries. The company was also the first launching in the region an automated CRM solution for medical promotion. Close-Up is currently a leading provider of prescription and sales data, advanced analytics and integrated technology solutions to pharmaceutical and consumer healthcare companies in Latin America. Close-Up International is the unique Latam service provider able to integrate an end-to-end solution evolving Promotion, Distribution and Sales on Retail and Non-Retail Markets, providing details on Market Dynamics, Payors, Therapies and it consolidates and integrates all the sales and prescriptions information of all the countries in the region through an advanced technological application (Regional Analyzer). A highly trained professional team and state-of-the art technology solutions with more than 950 active customers. Close-Up services help customers to evaluate business opportunities with data and technology solutions for each phase of the life-cycle of a product: launch planning, selection of medical target, measurement of promotional and commercial effectiveness, strategy and management of distribution channels, for retail, non-retail pharmaceutical markets. For more information about Close-Up International, visit www.close-upinternational.com

Source: PRA Health Sciences, Inc.

--BERNAMA