Quintiles and IMS Health have agreed to merge in a $9 billion deal that will create an IT leader in the life sciences industry that will link patient records to healthcare management apps using IMS’s cloud model, reports ZDNet.

“This combination addresses life-science companies’ most pressing needs: to transform the clinical development of innovative medicines, demonstrate the value of these medicines in the real world, and drive commercial success,” Tom Pike, the Quintiles chief executive, said in a news release. “I’m confident that together we will make our clients even more successful.”

With a stream of healthcare companies coupling up (Abbott reaching a deal to buy St. Jude Medical  for $25 billion, Sanofi making an offer to Medivation for $9.3 billion and AbbVie signing a deal with Stemcnetrx for $5.8 billion) this would seem like the best opportunity for both companies to grasp at the opportunity to dominate the healthcare IT field.

The combination of these companies will produce about $7.2 billion in annual revenue. Renamed Quintiles IMS Holdings, the company will be lead my IMS Health CEO Ari Bousbib while Pike will become vice chairman.

“The merger allows the combined company to be a solutions provider instead of offering technologies implemented on a spot basis,” said Bousbib. “Quintiles IMS Holdings is ultimately looking to be a provider to simplify clinical research and the healthcare system. The current Quintiles and IMS business models will remain. IMS, like other software providers, is transitioning to a software-as-services cloud model.”