INC Research Holdings, a global Phase I to IV contract research organization (CRO) has expanded its Functional Service Provider (FSP) service offering to include investigator payment processing. The addition of investigator payment processing to the company’s FSP offering builds on its nearly 20 years of experience in meeting the needs of biopharmaceutical customers for standalone outsourced services under an FSP model, including data management, medical writing, safety and pharmacovigilance, and site contracts.

“INC’s long history in working under the FSP business model, along with our proven track record in delivery of customized payment processing solutions for clinical research sites, are combining to create an exciting new offering for our customers,” said Tara Fitzgerald, president, clinical development services and head of the company’s FSP offering. “We look forward to meeting the strong customer demand for services in this area while continuing to offer our customers a broad range of solutions that fit the way they want to work today—whether it be via a functional or full-service outsourcing model or both.”

Delivery of INC’s investigator payment FSP services will be provided through a dedicated business unit led by Victoria Moore, vice president, investigator payments, with hub locations in Raleigh, NC; Camberley, UK; and Gurgaon, India.

The company currently is providing investigator payment services for several large customers under both the FSP and full-service models. It is using the Medidata Payments Cloud, which it says is the only global site payment technology driven by an integrated Electronic Data Capture (EDC) and Clinical Trial Management System (CTMS), as the foundation for its offering. Medidata Payments automates the clinical site payment workflow, processing high volumes of invoices and complex payment requests quickly and accurately.

According to the company, functional service provision has become an increasing and important model to biopharmaceutical customers worldwide for outsourcing of clinical development services. Services typically outsourced under an FSP model include high-volume clinical development tasks that are repetitive and duplicated across many projects.