Contract research news in brief
pharmafile | November 22, 2011 | News story | Manufacturing and Production |Â Â manufacturing and productionÂ
UCB forges strategic alliances with Parexel and PRA, Icon wins a contract for a phase III trial of a traditional Chinese medicine, plus updates from Quintiles, Cenix BioScience and DaVita.
Belgian drugmaker UCB has appointed Parexel and PRA International as its strategic partners for clinical development services, with the two contract research organisations becoming “integrated members of our study teams”. The broad-ranging agreements mean that PRA and Parexel will contribute to all of UCB’s clinical programmes on a worldwide basis. The alliances will “improve efficiency and cost-effectiveness, as well as increase opportunity for innovation, collaboration, and the continuous improvement of quality and services”, said Iris Loew-Friedrich, UCB’s chief medical officer.
Irish CRO Icon has been awarded a contract to carry out a Phase III trial of a traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) in the US on behalf of Tasly Pharmaceuticals. The trial will investigate Tasly’s Dantonic herbal product in patients with chronic stable angina. If successful, Dantonic could become the first TCM to be approved by the FDA.
German drugmaker Cygnis Bioscience has contracted German CRO Cenix BioScience to apply its high-content screening platform to a project aimed at finding new central nervous system drugs. The project will use Cenix’ RNA interference expertise to validate molecular targets and provide novel therapeutic candidates “to enrich Sygnis’ pipeline”. Sygnis’ lead drug candidate at present is AX200, a compound in Phase II testing in acute ischaemic stroke patients.
Quintiles has sold its minority stake in Singapore-based Invida to Italian drugmaker Menarini, which has just completed its takeover of the commercial services joint venture. Quintiles set up Invida in 2005 along with pharmaceutical distribution firm The Zuellig Group and investment company TLS Beta. The contract sales and distribution specialist reported $223 million of sales in 2010 and $7 million in profit.
Kidney disease specialist DaVita is opening an early phase clinical research unit and call centre in Denver, US, which together will create around 200 jobs. The clinical unit will provide kidney care-related testing services to pharma, biotech and medical device companies, while the call centre will focus on finding temporary and permanent dialysis places for patients.
Phil Taylor
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