Case Study: Vertex Pharmaceuticals halves database build times with Veeva Systems' Vault CDMS

Vertex Data Management Team Cuts Database Build Times by Half with Veeva Vault CDMS

Vertex’s data management team at Vertex Pharmaceuticals, a Boston-based leader in cystic fibrosis research, faced lengthy EDC build cycles that averaged 13–14 weeks—risking databases not going live before first patient visits. The delays were driven by time-consuming back-and-forth with vendors during casebook design and multi-week user acceptance testing (UAT), plus stakeholder requests that required offline clarification and rework.

Partnering with Veeva Vault CDMS and adopting an Agile, “spec-less” design, Vertex used templated CRFs, field reuse, and live, roundtable UAT with real-time updates to eliminate much of the traditional ping-pong. The result: their first Vault study was built in eight weeks (40% faster than historic norms), the next in six weeks (half their corporate target), an average build time of 7.5 weeks including amendments, and UAT effort cut by about 50%, with ongoing targets of four–six week builds.

Vertex Pharmaceuticals

Vikas Gulati

Global Head, Clinical Data Management and Metrics