Medidata Solutions

Multinational drug developers like GlaxoSmithKline and ­Bristol-Myers Squibb have taken their clinical research and trials to the cloud, thanks to Medidata’s software. Already, the company’s clinical cloud platform is being used by 17 of the top 25 global pharmaceutical companies, and nine of the 10 bestselling drugs in the world were developed on the platform. That success helped push revenues last year to $463 million, up 18% from the previous year. To keep more established competitors like Oracle at bay, Medidata will need to continue diversifying its customer base—the company’s top five customers accounted for approximately a quarter of sales last year.