Covance sold its preclinical research unit in Alnwick, UK to ARC Trinova, a new entity formed by investment group Shott Trinova LLP, earlier this month.
LabCorp-owned Covance mooted the idea of selling the Alnwick site last September.
The preclinical contract research organisation (CRO) announced it had entered talks with a party interested in buying the lab in December.
Sanofi deal
Covance bought the site from Sanofi in 2010 in a deal that also saw it contracted to provide discovery, toxicology and chemistry services for five years.
The research services deal with Sanofi - which also saw Covance buy a facility in Porcheville, France - came to an end last year.
A Covance spokeswoman told us “in April 2015 we announced we were considering strategic options for the Alnwick site due to a more challenging preclinical market in Europe and the cease of the Sanofi contractual payments at the end of October 2015."
The site provided CMC & Synthetic Chemistry, Bioanalysis, drug metabolism & pharmacokinetics (DMPK) and safety assessment services for pharmaceuticals development.
ARC said it "will add capability in active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) process development and scale up to the multi-kilogram level."
Jobs
Covance employed 130 people at the laboratory.
Steve Street, general manager and Covance global vice president early development, said: "The agreement with ARC Trinova provides a future for the Alnwick site and many of its staff and allows us to collaborate with ARC Trinova in certain areas linked to work performed at other Covance sites."
Reports in the local press suggest at least 50 Covance employees will be joining ARC.