ICON Selected by Lilly to Oversee its Clinical Data Management in Japan Strategic Agreement Builds on Existing Data Management Partnership

DUBLIN, Nov 02, 2009 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- ICON plc, (NASDAQ:ICLR), a global provider of outsourced development services to the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device industries, today announced that it has signed an extension to its strategic agreement with Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE:LLY) to manage the company's clinical data management outside the US. This extension means that ICON will now also manage Lilly's needs in Japan in addition to those in Europe, Canada, Latin America, Australia and Asia, which was originally agreed in November 2008. Lilly also selected ICON to manage clinical trial site set up and monitoring in Europe for Lilly managed studies in June 2009.

"Today's announcement is a continuation of a very successful partnership between ICON and Lilly," commented Peter Gray, CEO at ICON. "Through our existing data management partnership, we have brought significant process efficiencies to Lilly in helping them progress their drug development pipeline. That Lilly has chosen ICON to manage this important business function in such a key region as Japan is a measure of our global data management expertise and our local capabilities in the region." "With this transaction, Lilly Data Sciences and Solutions realises its objective to leverage external, scalable clinical data management capabilities around the globe," said Jeff Kasher, Lilly's Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Global Clinical Development. "We're pleased to extend our relationship with ICON to include Japan, and their proven ability to reliably deliver work within differing cultural climates provided Lilly the opportunity to take another significant step in our ongoing agenda to increase flexibility, reduce fixed cost, and focus internal resources on core capabilities." About ICON plc ICON plc is a global provider of outsourced development services to the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device industries. The Company specialises in the strategic development, management and analysis of programs that support clinical development - from compound selection to Phase I-IV clinical studies. ICON currently has around 7,000 employees, operating from 68 locations in 38 countries.

Further information is available at www.iconplc.com ICON/ICLR-G SOURCE: ICON plc CONTACT: Weber Shandwick for ICON plc UK Katy Davidson Direct: [phone] Email:[e-mail] or US Courtney Judd Direct:[phone] Email:[e-mail] Copyright Business Wire 2009 -0- KEYWORD: Australia

Canada

Ireland

Japan

Europe

Asia Pacific

North America

South America

Australia/Oceania INDUSTRY KEYWORD: Health

Biotechnology

Clinical Trials

Medical Devices

Pharmaceutical

Research

Science SUBJECT CODE: Contract/Agreement

Product/Service