Medidata, a New York City-based company that offers cloud storage and data analytics services for clinical trials, announced today that it has acquired Shyft Analytics, maker of a cloud data analytics platform specifically designed for the pharma and biotech industries.

The transaction valued Shyft at $195 million, inclusive of Medidata’s prior 6 percent ownership in the analytics platform, to be paid in cash. The acquisition was approved unanimously by the boards of both companies as well as the stockholders of Shyft, and is expected to close within the second quarter of this year.

“Together, Medidata and Shyft are powering customers’ digital transformation with artificial intelligence and real-world analytics to reduce risk, optimize revenue, and ultimately help patients,” Medidata CEO and Chairman Tarek Sherif said in a statement. “Combining our innovative solutions, talented teams and shared values, across both organizations will help life science companies streamline the way they develop products and bring them to market. Getting the right treatment, to the right patient, at the right time is a vision we have long shared with our customers.”

According to a statement, the two companies have come together to build a joint offering they call the “Intelligent Platform for Life Sciences.” Notably, this combined offering marries clinical and commercial information into a more comprehensive data platform that can be used to optimize value from the beginning of drug development to its eventual commercialization.

During an investor call held today to discuss the deal, Sherif said that the combination of each company’s technologies will help the pharma industry better address “huge productivity challenges” related to identifying, testing, and releasing new drugs and treatments. Further, he said that connecting clinical development with sales and marketing through a single, unified platform could help the industry embrace a more data-driven approach to commercialization.

“Medidata was founded with the idea of helping the industry address these opportunities and challenges, helping to power smarter treatments and healthier people,” he said during the call. “We’re on a journey — we first built the technology foundation to optimize clinical development. Now we can augment scientific decisions through advanced data analytics. In the future, with the addition of the Shyft platform, we can start to close the loop of pre- and post approval to drive digital transformation across the life science enterprise. Together with our customers, we will achieve better outcomes for patients, significantly reduce the cost of drug development, and accelerate cycle time to get treatments to patients faster while maximizing the revenue opportunity.”

During the call Sherif said that the two companies share similar internal cultures, and foresaw no immediate conflicts with integrating the two workforces. Of note, he mentioned that Shyft CEO and founder Zack King will be staying on in an executive role within the company, and will continue to oversee operations from Shyft’s Boston headquarters.

“Shyft and Medidata share a common vision to transform how life science companies harness the value of data to advance enterprise decision-making and patient outcomes,” King said in a statement. “Our talented team has had great success delivering value to the industry and our combined technology will create something unique that will unlock enormous opportunities for our customers. We are thrilled to be joining forces with Medidata to further execute our mission to advance healthcare through analytics.”