PPD, PRA, Accutest and Premier Research – Clinical contract news

Pharmaceutical Product Development (PPD) has announced an expansion of its operations in India, with plans to open a second office in Mumbai, the location of its existing site in the country.

The firm is looking to " strengthen our presence in this important global clinical research market" and has recruited Philip Mathew, formerly associate medical director at Covance, to the position of director of strategic development.

He will operate from the new Mumbai office and hunt for new clinical sites and business opportunities in the region.

In other news, the private sale of rival contract research organisation (CRO) PRA has now been completed - during the second quarter PRA signed an agreement with equity firm Genstar Capital to be bought back for $797m. In June 2001, PRA's executive management team purchased the company, with Genstar as an investor, with a 12.8 per cent stake.

In 2004 PRA went public in November 2004, although now it has reverted back to its private status.

At the time of the announcement in July, the firm's chief executive Terry Bieker remained tight-lipped about the reasons behind PRA's decision to go private and the specific factors taken into account by the special committee to consider the Genstar acquisition but said that "at this time they assessed the situation and decided it was the right thing to do".

Asked during a conference call at the time whether one of the reasons behind the buyout decision was to ease the process for potential future acquisitions, since it is generally more straight-forward to integrate an acquired company to a private firm compared to when the company is publicly listed, Bieker said: "More acquisitions are on the horizon and we are confident that Genstar would provide the capital to do so."

Meanwhile, Indian CRO Accutest Research Laboratories has opened its second facility, a clinical trial laboratory in Ahmedabad, the location of its existing site.

The new facility houses a clinical pharmacology unit, a bioanalytical and a pathology lab.

"It is the first centre in India to have API-5000 LCMS/MS machines for research," the firm said.

Accutest's expansion plans are bullish and the areas of bioanalytical testing, formulation development, clinical trials and clinical data management are the focus of the company's ambitions in this regard.

Premier Research has recently established a new consulting division called Strategic Product Development (SPD), under which the experts from an array of its current units including adaptive clinical trials design and clinical trial informatics, will now be grouped.

Meanwhile, the firm has indicated that talks are still continuing over an offer to buy the company, first placed on the table in August, by a number of its management team and its financial backers.