Contract research news in brief
pharmafile | March 28, 2011 | News story | Manufacturing and Production |Â Â Almac, Aptiv Solutions, Cosmic Discoveries, InhibOx, QuintilesÂ
Contract research organisation Quintiles Transnational has pulled back from plans to seek $2.4 billion in financing, saying that conditions in the credit market are unfavourable. The CRO wanted to use the money to refinance its $1.7 billion in debt and fund expansion via acquisitions and alliances, as well as general corporate purposes. Meanwhile, the CRO has opened a new first-in-human trial unit at Guy’s Hospital in London, UK, which houses 30 beds, a pharmacy for providing clinical trial materials and laboratory facilities.
Oxford, UK-based CRO InhibOx has formed a partnership with India’s Cosmic Discoveries to provide integrated drug discovery services spanning computational, medicinal, and synthetic chemistry design. The partnership will exploit InhibOx expertise in the use of cloud computing for computer-aided drug discovery with Cosmic’s medicinal and synthetic chemistry capabilities. The two companies will also collaborate on new drug molecules for Cosmic’s in-house R&D programmes.
Outsourcing specialist Almac of Northern Ireland says that its Clinical Technologies business unit has formed an alliance with Exco InTouch that will focus on integrating each company’s offerings in the areas of patient management, compliance, retention, and ePRO (electronic patient reported outcomes) service offerings for clinical trials. Almac’s interactive voice and web response platform IXRS will be complemented by additional features such as SMS, email and telephone-based messaging to patients.
Two US CROs – Aptiv Solutions and Cancer Genetics Inc – have joined forces to provide clinical trial services in the field of oncology. Aptiv specialises in adaptive trial design, early phase product strategy, regulatory services and pharmacovigilance, while CGI provides disease-specific biomarker knowledge, proprietary molecular testing and oncology lab services.
Preclinical Oncology Services (PRECOS) of the UK has extended its alliance with Argenta, part of Belgian company Galapagos NV, for the provision of oncology-focused drug discovery services for another five years. Argenta will incorporate PRECOS’ cancer models and scientific expertise into its integrated oncology drug discovery service offering, from hit identification through lead optimisation and in vivo proof-of-concept to clinical candidate selection.
Analytical and formulation development services company Advantar Labs has appointed Joe Page as vice president of laboratory operations. Page joins the CRO from Catalent, where he was formerly director of product formulation and analytical services.
Phil Taylor
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