The new service, which will based at the firm’s facility Swindon in the UK, includes ELISA, flow cytometry, luminescience and flourescnece assays as well as the contract production of master cell banks.
According to Norman Barras, vice president of PDS Europe, the ability to assess a biologics impact on everything from cell proliferation to biochemical pathway activation will improve the quality and therapeutic efficacy of the final drug and reduce the cost and time it takes to bring it to market.
Barras told Outsourcing-pharma that the service had been set up in response to growing industry demand for outsourced biologics development capability.
“Basically, an increasing proportion of the drugs entering clinical trials are biopharmaceutical products, Patheon recognises this and fully intends to ensure that it becomes the service provider of choice for this growing sector of the market.”
He went on to explain that: “Customers had been asking whether Patheon possessed this capability [and]…we take note of developing trends and recognise that in order to satisfy our clients' needs properly, our service offerings must reflect current industry and regulatory requirements.”
“Furthermore, the feedback we received was that very few contractors offer this capability in a GMP regulated environment. Therefore, bringing this capability in-house offers the opportunity to differentiate ourselves from other service providers.”
Barras added that with the assay service "we will be able to carry out full release testing and ICH stability studies all under one roof, without the need for relying on sub-contractors.”