IQVIA and Veeva Systems End Eight-Year Legal Battle with Strategic Partnership

IQVIA and Veeva Systems have announced comprehensive global partnerships spanning clinical and commercial operations, marking the complete resolution of all pending legal disputes between the two life sciences technology leaders. The agreement, which concludes an eight-year legal battle that began in 2017, establishes a framework for customers to seamlessly utilize software, data, technology and service offerings from both companies.

The settlement terms, disclosed in a recent SEC filing, require Veeva to make a one-time payment of approximately $31 million to law firms in connection with the litigation resolution. Notably, neither company is required to pay damages to the other party, and both have agreed to dismiss all claims and counterclaims with prejudice.

The partnerships encompass two critical areas that will directly benefit customers across the life sciences industry. In the commercial domain, the companies have established master data and software third-party access agreements. These permit IQVIA or Veeva data to be integrated with each other's software or services in customer instances, including the use of IQVIA data in Veeva Network for master data management, Veeva Nitro for analytics, and Veeva AI applications.

IQVIA has joined multiple Veeva partner programs, including the Technology, AI and Services Partner Programs. This participation aims to support customer integrations between Veeva software and IQVIA's analytics platforms, information management systems, master data management capabilities, IQVIA Agentic AI, and IQVIA Commercial Orchestration offerings.

On the clinical side, IQVIA has joined Veeva's contract research organization Clinical Data Partner program. This enables IQVIA to utilize the Veeva Clinical Suite for executing clinical trials using Veeva software products, including study builds with Veeva electronic data capture. The collaboration promises to accelerate database builds, study locks, and data delivery by combining IQVIA's clinical data management expertise and technology offerings with Veeva's software capabilities.

"I am excited about the potential for our clinical and commercial partnerships to create significant value for our shared customers," stated Peter Gassner, Veeva's founder and CEO, emphasizing his company's commitment to supporting "frictionless product and services integration" with IQVIA.

The original dispute stemmed from a 2017 lawsuit in which IQVIA alleged that Veeva had used unauthorized access to proprietary IQVIA data to improve its software and data products. IQVIA claimed Veeva's software was designed to steal trade secrets and that Veeva had intentionally gained unauthorized access to IQVIA proprietary information for unfair competitive advantage. Veeva responded with counterclaims alleging IQVIA had abused its monopoly power as the dominant provider of data for life sciences companies to exclude Veeva OpenData and Veeva Network from their respective markets.

This resolution represents a significant shift in the competitive landscape of life sciences technology, transforming adversaries into partners and potentially accelerating innovation through enhanced interoperability between two major platforms serving the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries.

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