Dassault Systèmes said that it has struck a deal to acquire Medidata Solutions for $5.7 billion. The move would give Dassault an entry point into the clinical trial technology market. The deal is set to close in 4Q19.

The transaction was unanimously approved by the boards of both companies. New York-based Medidata revenue was $636 million for the previous fiscal year.

Medidata’s clinical expertise and cloud-based solutions power the development and commercialization of smarter therapies for 1,300 customers worldwide, including pharmaceutical companies and biotechs, contract research organizations (CROs), and medical centers and sites.

With the acquisition of Medidata and its clinical and commercial solutions, Dassault Systèmes said it will reinforce its position as a science-based company by providing the Life Sciences industry with an integrated business experience platform for an end-to-end approach to research and discovery, development, clinical testing, manufacturing and commercialization of new therapies and health technologies.

“Today marks a significant milestone for the Life Sciences industry and the value of the virtual world to address the complexity of developing personalized medicine and patient-centric experiences. Multidiscipline scientific innovation and industrial performance call for a platform approach connecting the dots between people, ideas and data,” Bernard Charlès, Vice Chairman and CEO, Dassault said in a release. “Medidata’s leading position in clinical trials complements our life sciences solutions on the 3DExperience collaborative platform. Medidata’s recent expansion into real world evidence and analytics coupled with the power of modeling and simulation demonstrates how the virtual world will catalyze the next generation of patient-inclusive therapeutics. We are now well positioned to be the enabler of the Life Sciences industry transformation, illustrating our company’s purpose of harmonizing product, nature and life.”