Contract research news in brief
pharmafile | July 29, 2010 | News story | Research and Development | CRO, LAB Research, Microsoft, PPD, PharmaNet, QPS, Selvita
Icon reports that new business wins rose healthily in the second quarter, plus there’s an alliance between PPD and Microsoft and business updates from LAB Research, QPS, Selvita and PharmaNet.
Irish contract research organisation Icon has reported second quarter revenues of $224 million, up 2%, although operating income fell 13% to $25.7 million. Chief executive Peter Gray said he was pleased with the performance given the tough operating environment for CROs, pointing to net new business wins of $320 million and growth in the company’s backlog to $1.9 billion.
PPD has joined forces with Microsoft to develop a platform to help drugmakers manage risk evaluation and mitigation strategy (REMS) for products mandated by US regulator the FDA. The two companies say this will be a first-of-its-kind system for managing operational components of REMS programs while tracking large amounts of information collected from multiple sources, including the patient, healthcare provider and pharmacy.
Non-clinical CRO LAB Research says it has won a preferred provider contract from a Japanese pharmaceutical company in the area of “toxicology, infusion, drug metabolism and safety pharmacology”. The Canadian company also said it would be boosting staff to its research facilities in Canada and Hungary by around 15%, thanks to increased capacity utilisation.
QPS Holdings has completed its acquisition of Netherlands-based CRO Xendo Drug Development, which has now been renamed QPS Netherlands. The Dutch firm operates large and small molecule bioanalytical labs and has a 24-bed clinical pharmacology unit at the University Medical Centre Groningen (UMCG). Former XDD chief executive Koos Koops will continue to head the QPS Netherlands division.
PharmaNet Development Group has teamed up with Abacus International to help clients document their products’ clinical and economic value, tapping into their expertise in patient registry studies and health economic programmes in Europe. PharmaNet is a specialist in the design and implementation of clinical trials and prospective ‘real-world’ research studies, while Abacus’ expertise lies in health economics, health technology assessment and market access solutions.
German drugmaker Rottapharm Madaus has retained drug discovery services company Selvita to prove a set of designed and synthesised compounds, including their optimised synthesis route, with therapeutic potential in an undisclosed area. Polish CRO Selvita specialises in computational and medicinal chemistry, biology and pharmacology services.
Phil Taylor
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