Exostar, whose cloud-based technology helps aerospace and defense companies manage supply chains and control access to websites, is moving into working with pharmaceutical companies.

Exostar works with about 50,000 suppliers to Boeing Co. and other large aerospace and defense manufacturers, processing purchase orders, invoices, ship notices and other business documents. About 100 suppliers also use Exostar to exchange “machine-to-machine” orders and other documents with manufacturers.

Now, with a $15 million in investment by the Merck Global Health Innovation Fund, the investment arm of pharmaceutical giant Merck & Co., Exostar is also working with major pharmaceutical companies and Transcelerate, a nonprofit research development organization for the pharmaceutical industry. The goal is to help pharmaceutical companies share information in clinical trials through a secure system of authenticating identities and controlling authorized web access.

“There’s a lot of growth in biopharmaceuticals” for Exostar’s services, a spokesman for the portal services company says.