ProQuest has acquired UK-based Pi2 Solutions, an industry leader in product literature databases, workflow tools and related outsourcing services for global pharmaceutical companies. The company plans to align Pi2 with its ProQuest Dialog corporate information service to create an integrated solution for pharmacovigilance and expand ProQuest's presence in the pharmaceutical industry.
Currently, pharmaceutical companies rely on ProQuest Dialog to monitor scientific literature for advances and news on drugs and therapies through alerts. They can then use Pi2's Drug Safety Triager and related services to automate the review, categorisation, and indexing of alert results. These results then flow into Pi2's PinPoint product - a customised repository that offers market-leading search and content management functionality and delivers necessary regulatory reports.
It is expected that the combination of ProQuest Dialog and Pi2 will significantly improve and simplify drug safety workflows in the industry. However, many pharmaceutical firms have developed very customised solutions, so ProQuest Dialog will continue to feed alerts to other providers of product literature databases and Pi2 will continue to ingest alerts from other aggregators. ProQuest will maintain partnerships and connectivity with all the content and software providers that its customers use to support their processes.
The Pi2 co-founders Mark Drinkwater and Nigel Johnson will remain deeply involved with the business. Drinkwater joins ProQuest as Director of Pi2 and will report to Tim Wahlberg, ProQuest senior vice-president and General Manager, ProQuest Dialog. Johnson will continue to work with ProQuest in a consulting capacity over the coming year to ensure a smooth transition. Drinkwater and the rest of the UK-based Pi2 team will move to ProQuest's London office, while Pi2's US employees will continue in their current locations.
