Kirkland, Wash.-Radiant Research Inc., a national site management organization (SMO) performing clinical trials, announced today that it is acquiring the pharmaceutical research division of Hill Top Research, Inc. The acquisition will make Radiant the nation's largest owned-model SMO, employing more than 500 investigators and site personnel experienced in conducting over 5,000 studies across 16 therapeutic areas.

Under the terms of the acquisition, Radiant is purchasing 20 pharmaceutical sites from Hill Top as well as the company's information technology system and national patient recruitment call center. The acquisition doubles Radiant's capacity to include 38 investigative research sites. Cincinnati, Ohio-based Hill Top will focus on its consumer products testing business under the continued leadership of J. James Pearce, Jr., president and chief executive officer (CEO).

"We're combining two of the nation's leading SMOs into one family of research-dedicated professionals.The deal made sense because we shared a common vision of providing our clients a family of integrated investigative sites able to conduct entire Phase I, II and III clinical trials," said Mike Lester, Radiant's CEO and president."This powerful combination of sites and investigators provides Radiant the ability to execute better, faster clinical trials, as no one in the industry has done before."

"The integration of two industry leaders into one dominant SMO doubles capacity and simultaneously decreases overhead-this speaks to the efficiency the combined organization offers clients," said Jim Pearce, Hill Top's CEO. "The sale of the SMO business allows us to focus our resources to better serve our Consumer Product customers and further solidify our number one position worldwide in this marketplace."

"The bulk of our four-phase integration plan will be executed over the next 90 days," said Mike Lester. "While this is certainly our largest acquisition, we've been through the integration drill 16 times now and we improve each time. Radiant and Hill Top's clients can expect research to continue as usual, while we work on delivering better resources and even more investigators dedicated to our mission of changing the nature of clinical studies."

The agreement, reached in principle last week, is expected to be signed by both organizations the week of May 26.

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About Radiant Research
Based near Seattle, Washington, Radiant Research (radiantresearch.com) is a comprehensive clinical research and development company serving the biopharmaceutical and medical device industry. Radiant is comprised of more than 30 wholly-owned premier clinical research centers nationwide, employing over 500 clinical research professionals exclusively focused on providing professional, high quality study conduct and drug development services. In the past four years, Radiant has conducted more than 8,000 clinical trials across 18 therapeutic specialties.

About Hill Top Research
Hill Top Research, Inc. (http://www.hill-top.com) is the world's largest consumer product testing company with nine research centers throughout North America and Europe. It conducts testing for the leading manufacturers of personal care cosmetics, oral care and over-the-counter (OTC) drug products. Hill Top Research is headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Contact:
Michael K. Lester Chief Executive Officer RADIANT RESEARCH (425) 468-6200	Pamela M. Spaniac Chief Financial Officer RADIANT RESEARCH (425) 468-6200