Emmes, a global, full-service Clinical Research Organization (CRO) dedicated to supporting the advancement of public health and biopharmaceutical innovation, today announced that it has acquired Casimir, a U.S.-based CRO. Casimir has experience in more than 20 rare diseases and has worked with regulators, sponsors and patients to develop outcome measures that capture the nuances of disease progression and treatment benefit.
Emmes Chief Executive Officer Dr. Christine Dingivan said, “This is the fourth acquisition for Emmes in just over a year, as we continue to add new biopharma clients and deepen our innovative research capabilities. The combination of Casimir and Emmes will further differentiate our global rare disease center of excellence, Orphan Reach™. We plan to continue and accelerate the groundbreaking work of Casimir in neurodegenerative and neuromuscular conditions with remote data capture and patient outcome standardization.”
Founded in 2016, Casimir is supporting 39 projects with 25 different clients. It is especially well known for its efforts in Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD) and the application of its proprietary Duchenne Video Assessment (DVA) tool that measures clinical outcomes via remote data capture. The DVA is actively being explored in a variety of other rare disease indications, as well as in other neurogenerative/neuromuscular diseases.
Rare disease research is a strategic priority for Emmes. The company established Orphan Reach™: Emmes’ Rare Disease Center to combine its expertise in biostatistics, data management and clinical research with Orphan Reach’s rare disease patient-centric focus. Now, with Casimir’s proprietary clinical outcomes technology, Emmes establishes itself as the industry-leading CRO in rare and orphan disease clinical research and drug development.
Casimir’s CEO and Co-Founder Christine McSherry said, “Emmes’ long history and passion to improve public health were instrumental in our decision to join this outstanding company. The size and reach of Emmes will give us an even greater ability to expand our current platform and outcomes development expertise to other neurodegenerative diseases and therapeutic areas.”
Rhonda Henry, President of Emmes’ BioPharma Group, noted, “The combination of Emmes and Casimir will provide our clients access to full-service protocol design, strategy and trial execution services, not only for rare diseases, such as DMD, but also for a variety of myopathies and neurological conditions.”
She added, “Casimir is known for its virtual clinical trials and remote assessments that minimize the burden on patients and caregivers. This is something that we will build upon in other Emmes studies, as our goal is to utilize more and more real-world evidence to improve data quality and information for doctors when treating their patients.”
According to Dr. Dingivan, “Another advantage of Casimir’s addition to our Emmes team is that its work with biopharma companies, patient advocacy groups, regulators, and non-profits to design and validate its tools, like video assessments, has broader application to rare disease studies for Emmes’ public sector clients, such as the National Institutes of Health.”