SAS Institute to spin off net B2B company

US statistical analysis and data warehousing software vendor SAS Institute on Friday announced a first for the privately owned company -- the spinning off of a B2B (business-to-business) internet operation.

To be known as iBiomatics LLC, the new spin-off will become a wholly owned subsidiary of SAS and concentrate on biomedical research, SAS said in a statement. The subsidiary will use internet portals to facilitate the exchange of data between life sciences researchers, particularly in relation to the safety and effectiveness of drugs and medical devices.Portals are websites that act as the first entry points to other resources on the internet.

SAS hopes that by using net technologies and pooling knowledge, researchers will be able to more rapidly develop and market new medical drugs. Currently, it takes around 14 years and $US500 million to bring a new drug to market, SAS said in the statement.

One of the new spin-off's divisions will be the SAS PharmaHealth Technologies business unit. Parent company SAS will give iBiomatics access to SAS data warehousing and DSS (decision support software) and the research and development supporting those products.