Cerner on Thursday announced the completion of its purchase of Kantar Health for $375 million in cash – an acquisition it says will be a boost to its expanded efforts toward life sciences research capabilities.

WHY IT MATTERS
Kantar Health's analytics expertise spans a wide array of therapeutic areas: Alzheimer's, cancers, rare diseases and more. Its tools and policy expertise have been used by companies across the pharma and life sciences industries.

Cerner says combining those research and consulting bona fides with its own real-world data stores and portfolio of technologies can better help companies and research groups develop new therapeutics and improve health, wellness and treatment outcomes.

With the completion of the deal, which was first announced in December 2020, Kantar Health's global team – including its research and consulting solutions and clients – will join Cerner's Strategic Growth business, according to the company.

Lynnette Cooke will continue to lead the Kantar Health team and join the Cerner leadership. 

"Kantar Health and Cerner's Strategic Growth business have a great deal in common, starting with a vision to advance patient care around the world," said Cooke in a press statement. "Culturally, we share the same values when it comes to how we develop our people, our offer and our client base."

THE LARGER TREND
With the acquisition, Cerner plans to further build out its Cerner Learning Health Network client consortium. First launched in 2019 in collaboration with Duke Clinical Research Institute, the network aims to give medical researchers faster and easier access to data that can help them innovate new approaches to health.

One recent addition to the Learning Health Network consortium was a December 2020 investment in Elligo Health Research, which Cerner said would offer additional clinical trial resources to community and rural hospitals, and physician practices.

Specifically Cerner hopes to bolster the collaboration between care providers and the pharmaceutical industry – enabling life sciences researchers to uncover more insights using differentiated RWD assets for complex clinical research questions.

Today, the consortium comprises 92 million patients and 776 million clinical encounters; Cerner hopes the addition of Kantar Health will broaden engagement with life sciences companies for funded research studies and development of new therapeutics.

ON THE RECORD
"The promise of real-world evidence to power drug discovery is right in front of us," said Cerner President Donald Trigg in a statement. "Kantar Health is an important next step in building out the capabilities our growing network of provider clients need to fundamentally change the time and cost for clinical trials."

"Our collective capabilities and assets will enable the acceleration of innovation and elevate our expertise in addressing the most complex clinical research questions changing the way healthcare is developed and delivered," added Cooke.

Twitter: @MikeMiliardHITN
Email the writer: mike.miliard@himssmedia.com
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