Through investments and alliances Covance has strengthened early stage research and development operations in recent years, putting it in a position to meet client demands for comprehensive service offerings.
Covance is now grouping these services and believes the process will offer a number of advantages. The new unit will “better leverage current capabilities”, according to Deborah Tanner, corporate senior vice president at Covance, and provide greater value to clients.
This will be achieved by offering a portfolio of services that mirror clients’ drug development models, allowing for faster and more effective decisions to be made. Furthermore, integrating the units will encourage scientific and technical collaboration between complementary operations.
Integrated operations
Included in the new group are discovery services, antibody products and immunology operations, the Biomarker Center of Excellence and Genomics Laboratory. Furthermore, the unit will leverage Covance’s minority stake in Caprion Proteomics and the alliance with Rules-Based Medicine.
Joe Herring, CEO of Covance, explained that these units have “world-class talent and technologies in genomics, proteomics, biomarkers and discovery services”, offering clients “early safety and efficacy testing, in vivo pharmacology and imaging”.
The breadth and depth of this offering is unmatched among contract research organisations (CRO), according to Covance, making the company “uniquely positioned” to meet clients’ early stage requests.
Covance has appointed Jonathon Koch to lead to unit, giving him the position of vice president (VP) and general manager, discovery and translational services. Koch was previously VP and general manager of the Covance Greenfield site in Indiana, US.