Contract research news in brief
pharmafile | September 24, 2012 | News story | Research and Development |Â Â AMRI, Celerion, Covance, GNS Healthcare, INC Research, Knopp Biosciences, PPD, Vitalea BioscienceÂ
A round-up of recent developments in the contract research sector, including updates from Covance/GNS, AMRI, Celerion, PPD, INC Research and Vitalea Bioscience.
Data analytics company GNS Healthcare has teamed up with contract research organisation Covance on a project to develop models to help firms “optimise the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of drug development activities”. The partnership will combine GNS’ supercomputer and data analysis activities with Covance’s clinical and scientific data assets to create computer models that predict the likelihood of development success for a drug candidate. They will initially focus on type II diabetes.
Contract research and manufacturing services (CRAMS) company AMRI has won a contract to help US biotech Knopp Biosciences develop new drugs to treat neurological disorders. Under the terms of the two-year agreement AMRI will provide discovery-related services such as medicinal chemistry, drug metabolism and pharmacokinetics (DMPK) work and computer-aided drug discovery (CADD). The two companies have been working together since 2006.
US company Celerion has become the first CRO to be awarded full accreditation by the Association for the Accreditation Human Research Protection Programmes (AAHRPP), which aims ensure human trials meet standards for quality and subject protection. “This accreditation … highlights our commitment to increased quality and transparency in conducting ethically sound research for our clients,” said Celerion’s chief executive Susan Thornton.
Pharmaceutical Product Development (PPD) has signed a deal that will allow it to tap into the Global Allergy and Asthma European Network (GA2LEN), a consortium representing more than 100 clinical sites. The deal gives the CRO access to a comprehensive research network and dozens of allergy and asthma experts, while GA2LEN said it would be able to boost the amount of research it can undertake and make novel therapies available to patients earlier.
INC Research has opened a new facility in Seoul, South Korea, that will focus on “study start-up and clinical operations around key therapeutic areas”. The new unit – which will be located in the Gangnam-gu district of Seoul – will tap into “a dramatic increase in the opportunities for biopharmaceutical companies’ drug development programmes” in South Korea, following a renewed push into this area by the country’s government.
Germany’s Eckert & Ziegler has acquired Vitalea Bioscience, a US bioanalytical CRO that provides accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) services to organisations carrying out pre-clinical and clinical studies of new drugs. AMS is used in microdosing studies that explore how carbon 14-labelled molecules behave when administered in vivo. Vitalea also provides AMS services for the characterisation and identification of non-medical carbon-based compounds. Terms of the deal have not been disclosed.
Phil Taylor
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