The 22,000 sq ft lab, which is located in the Purdue Research Park of Indianapolis' technology centre at the Ameriplex Business Park, will provide contract bioanalysis services for discovery and early-stage drug development,
Advion explained that it has seen increasing demand for this type of early-phase research work from its existing pharmaceutical industry client base as a result of current market dynamics.
“Market demand for all drug discovery, metabolism and development services is high as pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies are under pressure to increase their flexibility and move to a hybrid outsourced research model.”
Eli Lilly
One of Advison’s key pharma customers is US drugmaker Eli Lilly, which outsourced all of its bioanalytical laboratory work to the US contract research organisation (CRO) in March.
The deal was in keeping with Lilly’s wider outsourcing strategy, which has seen it farm out a significant proportion of its production, analysis and clinical trial operations to contractors since 2007.
Advion CEO David Patteson said: “The establishment of this laboratory in Indianapolis further strengthens our relationship with Lilly as a key partner in bioanalytical services while positioning Advion to be one of the largest and most-respected bioanalytical service providers in North America.”
However, while Lilly will be a major customer for the new lab, it will not be the only firm to use the bioanalysis services that are available, explained Advion president Tom Kurz.
“In addition to providing these services to Lilly, we are very pleased with the prospect of offering these services to our other clients and see this as a significant opportunity to further grow this business and expand the size of our Indianapolis operation in the future.”