Contract research news in brief
pharmafile | February 15, 2010 | News story | Research and Development |Â Â Almac Pharma Services, CRO, CoreLab Partners, DreamCIS, PPD, Parexel, Proteome Sciences, SIRO Clinpharm, Thermo Fisher ScientifiticÂ
Our round-up of developments in the contract research sector includes alliances for Parexel/Proteome Sciences and SIRO Clinpharm/DreamCIS, as well as a merger in the core laboratory sector.
Parexel has teamed up with Proteome Sciences to provide biomarker discovery and qualification services for early phase clinical development of new biopharmaceuticals. The collaboration will allow Parexel to offer its customers mass spectrometric and pharmacokinetic assays for protein and peptide compounds in addition to its current portfolio of laboratory, preclinical and clinical services. “Biomarker analyses are anticipated to become increasingly important in clinical trials to understand the biological activity and safety profile of candidate therapies,” commented Michelle Middle, who heads up Parexel’s early-phase division.
Indian CRO SIRO Clinpharm has forged an alliance with Korean counterpart DreamCIS to tap into the growing clinical research market in Korea and also the wider Asia Pacific region. DreamCIS specialises in patient recruitment, clinical trial management and ancillary services. Meanwhile, SIRO Clinpharm has confirmed it is exploring an alliance with fellow Indian CRO Clingene, a subsidiary of Biocon, although no official announcement has been made as yet.
Thermo Fisher Scientific has opened a new facility in Cheshire, UK, that houses the company’s anatomical pathology and is a manufacturing centre for its chromatography consumables business. The Runcorn plant has created around 60 jobs, boosting employment at the Thermo site to more than 200. It will concentrate on supplying products and services to improve the detection and diagnosis of cancer and advance research for drug development, according to Thermo.
Almac Pharma Services has invested in an Xcelodose 600 powder microdosing system at its site in Craigavon, Northern Ireland, which will be used to help its customers start clinical trials of candidate drugs more quickly. The automated system, made by Capsugel, can fill active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) into capsules – sometimes without excipients – at a rate of several hundred capsules per hour. It is particularly suited to producing formulations for use in early-stage clinical testing. Dosing directly into the capsules reduces the amount of API that needs to be used. Almac’s system includes a containment module to allow it to handle APIs with high or unknown toxicity.
Imaging specialist RadPharm has merged with Medifacts International to create a combined company offering core laboratory services to the pharmaceutical industry. The new firm, called CoreLab Partners, will combine RadPharm’s expertise in radiology and nuclear medicine with Medifacts’ portfolio of cardiovascular services, such as electrocardiogram (ECG), ambulatory blood pressure monitoring, spirometry, glucometry and pulse wave analysis. The combined company employs 400 staff and has over 100 clients among biopharmaceutical companies and CROs.
PPD says its global central laboratory operations in Singapore, opened last year, has been certified by the College of American Pathologists (CAP). CAP is recognised as a key accreditation for sites offering central lab services, and the Singapore facility is the fourth at PPD to earn the award.
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