Medical testing recruiter grows fast

Six years of work pay off for eCast

RALEIGH -- It took more than six years to set up eCast, a Raleigh company that recruits patients and doctors for drug research. Then, the company went into overdrive.

In the past 18 months, eCast has raised about $12 million from private investors, hired dozens of employees and moved to larger headquarters, said Peter Bechtel, eCast's chief executive.

"It's been a massive growth curve," Bechtel said.

The company now employs 81, half of them in the Triangle, and hiring continues. Bechtel expects eCast's work force to grow to more than 170 by the end of next year.

To fill the jobs, which pay from $40,000 to $80,000, eCast is looking for nurses, salespeople and software trainers.

The rapid expansion of eCast is fueled by a drug research boom that started about two years ago. Regulatory requirements have become stricter. Research and development budgets are growing. Drug makers are increasingly relying on outside companies, also known as contract research organizations or CROs, to test new medicines for them.

In 2005, CROs generated about $14 billion in revenue worldwide, according to Thomson CenterWatch, an industry trade publication. By 2010, CROs are projected to generate $25.9 billion worldwide.

The Triangle is one of the world's biggest homes for contract research organizations. Most of the 90 such companies based in North Carolina have operations in the Triangle, according to the N.C. Biotechnology Center.

ECast is already involved in studies testing new medicines for about two dozen therapeutic areas, including painkillers and treatments targeting children and women, Bechtel said. But the company is "getting more contracts than we can handle," he said.

Founded in 1999, eCast uses technology to scan medical records and claims data to collect names of patients and doctors, as well as medical and treatment information.

It took a handful of employees more than six years and about $500,000 to get the technology ready.

In January 2006, the company received its first contract. Seven months later, the first investments started to roll in.

ECast now has 12 offices in the United States and one in the Netherlands.