Dassault Systèmes: Q2 26: A more balanced quarter

Research evidence excerpt

Dassault Systèmes: Q2 26: A more balanced quarter

While management acknowledged the buyers of ArisGlobal within the mainly

pharmaceutical industry are different from those that select clinical solutions the fact

that Veeva offers these as part of its portfolio arguably confirms a business logic in the

transaction, albeit Veeva regards its position in both Safety and Quality as relatively

immature today (Figure 3). ArisGlobal has 200 clients, including half of the top 50

pharma companies. While its revenue per customer is implicitly sub-$1m a year, its

largest customers generate in excess of $5m a year. Dassault sees an opportunity to take

it into the mid-market, noting that Medidata has 4,000 customers globally. Dassault also

sees an opportunity to take the data from adverse outcomes captured in ArisGlobal (of

which c80% are private) to help anticipate possible adverse effects, improving the

efficacy of both drug design and trials.

The acquisition comes at a time when Dassault has not yet turned around Medidata,

which has been shrinking for seven of the last ten quarters (Figure 4). This is despite

signs US trial volumes are starting to grow again (Figure 4). Management noted that

headwinds from Moderna would become much more modest in Q4 and ARR had

started to re-grow again y/y since the end of Q2. We believe mgt expects to return to y/y

growth at Medidata next year or possibly in Q4, and Q3 should show some

improvement over Q2. It seems more confident on the CRO business now.

Figure 4: Medidata, IQVIA and ICON growth vs y/y change in US clinical trials

ON

IC

and

IA

IQV

,

data

Medi

growt h vs y/y c hange in U S cli nical tria ls

Source: UBS estimates, company data, ClinicalTrials.gov Accessed Oct. 2025

Figure 5: Dassault cloud growth analysed - €m