Software Makers Buy Clinical Trial Firms

Tripos, a supplier of drug discovery informatics products, has agreed to acquire Pharsight, a provider of software and services designed to optimize clinical drug development, for $57 million. "The fusion of the design and analysis tools from Tripos and Pharsight will allow us to bring greater value to our customers engaged in the pharmaceutical research and development process," says Tripos CEO Jim Hopkins. Meanwhile, Phase Forward, a developer of software used in collecting drug trial information, has acquired Clarix, a provider of Web-based interactive response technology, for $40 million.