This month’s news on hires, promotions, acquisitions, and expansions includes items about Javara, Elligo, Lonza, Yourway, Medable, and other notable firms.
This month’s news on hires, promotions, acquisitions, and expansions includes items about Javara, Elligo, Lonza, Yourway, Medable, and other notable firms.
Clinical trials supply chain specialist Yourway has broken ground on an expansion of its Allentown, Pennsylvania headquarters. The project is expected to add an additional 3,500 pallet locations of refrigerated 2-8 degrees C space and increase the campus’s footprint to more than 300,000 square feet.
“Adding this new capacity into Yourway’s already unique approach to integrated clinical trial services is the next logical step in the company’s commitment to providing unmatched comprehensive support for the clinical trials needs of clients, offering end-to-end support from packaging all the way to courier services under one company,” said Gulam Jaffer, Yourway’s president and founder.
Integrated research organization (IRO) Javara has appointed Sharmila Bristol as chief technology officer. With more than two decades of experience leading digital transformation efforts at various organizations, Bristol will help the firm build a technology platform to streamline study startup and execution.
“We’re thrilled to welcome Sharmila to the Javara family; she was undoubtedly the perfect choice for the role, as she brings top-notch expertise in leading teams, driving innovation and has an outstanding track record of developing technology strategies to enable deep collaboration and trusted partnerships,” said Javara CEO Jennifer Byrne. “Sharmila’s keen abilities in developing transformation roadmaps with strict governance will lead us to delivering clinical research as a care option to millions of patients together with our healthcare partners nationwide.”
Global contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) WuXi STA plans to build a new pharmaceutical manufacturing campus in Middletown, Delaware. The site, expected to open in 2024, is expected to ultimately bring about 500 new jobs to the area.
“WuXi STA is excited to join Delaware’s growing healthcare community and establish Middletown as the home of our new state-of-the-art pharmaceutical clinical and commercial manufacturing complex,” said Minzhang Chen, CEO of WuXi STA. “Delaware’s highly trained pharmaceutical manufacturing workforce and proximity to many of our customers provide tremendous opportunities to support the region’s economic growth and efforts to advance pharmaceutical development and manufacturing.”
Healthcare data specialist Datavant has announced plans to merge with clinical data exchange Ciox Health, in a transaction valued at $7b USD. The combined company (to be named Datavant) will focus on helping clients improve outcomes and reduce costs by facilitating secure exchange of health data.
“The fragmentation of health data is one of the single greatest challenges facing the healthcare system today,” said Pete McCabe, CEO of Ciox Health. “We are thrilled to join forces with the Datavant team to connect health data to improve patient outcomes; together we are well positioned to navigate the technical, operational, legal, and regulatory challenges to doing so, and are committed to acting as a neutral connectivity solution for our many customers and partners.”
Patient-centricity specialist Medable has named Sanskriti Thakur to serve as chief growth officer. Bringing 18 years of experience in the life-sciences field to the company, she will focus on market expansion and growth initiatives to advance the firm’s human-centered research efforts, enabling remote access to clinical trials to a diverse, inclusive patient population.
“I have devoted my work to science and research, and there is no better time spent than helping deliver a technology that will transform healthcare,” said Thakur. “Without inclusion and access, medicines are not made for everyone. Without improved access and the right data, we are limited in our ability to innovate science and ensure inclusive medicine.”
Specialty materials firm Aceto has acquired API manufacturer Cascade Chemistry. The move is intended to enhance Aceto’s support for drug development clients.
“The acquisition of Cascade Chemistry supports and complements our focus on acquisitions that offer customers supply chain choice and technical expertise; with each of our acquisitions, Aceto looks to add companies that enhance our business capabilities and support our growth strategy, while aligning with our core business values,” said Gilles Cottier, Aceto’s CEO.
Metrics Contract Services, the contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) division of Mayne Pharma, has purchased additional equipment to expand its drug delivery capacity. The new units include a Korsch XM-12 Bilayer Tablet Press and a Top Spray Fluidization system for the Glatt GPCG-120 PRO.
Brad Gold, vice president of pharmaceutical development, said, “Both of these new technologies add capacity in our development/clinical and commercial sectors…allowing us to develop more complex dosage forms, explore enhanced drug delivery options, and meet demand for larger production orders. These additions are part of Metrics Contract Services’ commitment to continuous improvement on behalf of our customers.”
Elligo Health Research has named Miranda Mann Porter to its leadership team as COO. She brings a diverse, extensive background in therapeutics, operational execution of clinical development programs and Phase I-IV trials, post-marketing medical affairs services, and healthcare delivery.
John Potthoff, CEO of Elligo, said, “Miranda brings a wealth of experience to the COO role as we continue to build out our team and hire the best minds in the industry. We look forward to continuing to expand our leadership team, technologies, and service offerings as we further our mission to ensure that all patients have access to clinical trials as a care option.”
Decentralized trial solutions firm Hawthorne Effect announced it has closed a $20m USD Series A funding round. The investment funds reportedly will be used accelerate growth and fuel the company’s mission to help alleviate key issues related to patient recruitment and retention.
“We figured out that clinical trial continuity has the same root cause as equity gaps in health care delivery — accessibility and convenience for patients,” said Jodi Akin, Hawthorne Effect CEO and founder. “While there is great momentum in the adoption of decentralized clinical trials, apps just don’t draw blood, nor do they reach the equity divide; Hawthorne Effect uniquely offers the only technology-enabled distributed professionals model that addresses these common barriers in clinical research.”
Lonza has announced a CHF 20m (about $21.6 USD) investment in expansion of its active pharmaceutical ingredient (API) development and manufacturing facility in Nansha, China. The project includes mid-scale manufacturing capabilities to help smooth transitions between early-phase and large-scale production.
Jan Vertommen, senior director of commercial development, said, “Increasing our capabilities by adding mid-scale API manufacturing at our site in Nansha will benefit our customers, and especially the many global emerging biotech companies we partner with. These companies need cost-effective, seamless ways to move small molecule compounds from early-phase to commercial according to global quality and regulatory standards, and these expanded facilities at our Nansha site are designed to help them to do so.”
Patient matching platform provider Trialbee has announced its new advisory board, intended to provide insights and expertise from a broad range of experts from across the trial ecosystem. The board reportedly will work to drive the growth of the company’s solutions to increase trial enrollment performance.
“As much as things have changed since the pandemic, enrolling representative patient populations for a given trial on time remains the biggest challenge in bringing new drugs and vaccines to market,” said Trialbee CEO Matt Walz. “The collective experience we’ve harnessed with our advisory board better enables Trialbee to weigh innovative technologies and streamline the enrollment performance.”
Health technology firm CitiusTech has acquired SDLC Partners The purchased company provides tech solutions to payer organizations.
“Payer organizations are leaning heavily on digital capabilities and innovative technology solutions to enhance quality of care, member experience and overall performance,” said Bhaskar Sambasivan, president of CitiusTech. “Our investment in SDLC is another step towards helping payers accelerate their transformation to value-based, member-centric operating models.”
Topical/transdermal product specialist MedPharm has announced a £1.5m (about $2.1m USD) investment in refurbishing its Surrey, UK facility. The renovations reportedly will enable the company to keep up with growing demand for its products and increase use of automated technologies.
Rob Turner, general manager in the UK for MedPharm, said, “We are excited to be renovating both our laboratory and office facilities to ensure our resources remain state of the art. MedPharm has been supporting clients from Guildford for 15 years and this renovation will secure our footprint here in Surrey for years to come.”
Immunomics technology firm ImmunoScape has announced three additions to its executive and scientific leadership. The hires include Dan MacLeod, vice president of discovery; Katja Fink, senior director of its hit discovery program, and Andreas Wilm, director of computational biology.
“We are excited to announce these exceptional new additions to our global team on the heels of our recent funding announcement and opening of our San Diego laboratory as we expand the use of our platform into drug discovery and develop new partnerships with leading biopharma,” said Choon-Peng Ng, CEO of ImmunoScape. “Dr. MacLeod, Dr. Fink, and Dr. Wilm bring decades of invaluable experience across immunology research and technology and will build a world class team around them to apply the use of our Deep Immunomics platform for next-generation drug discovery.”
Contract research organization (CRO) Avomeen has been recognized by the State of Michigan for its contributions to the community. The Special Tribute award cited the contributions the company’s scientific team has made to support the fight against COVID-19.
Mark Harvill, CEO of Avomeen, said, “I am so thankful for the difference our scientific community has made and continues to make in supporting the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic in Michigan and around the world.”
LMC Manna Research has announced it has added dermatology to its range of clinical trial service areas. The expansion of capabilities kicked off with three new research sits (one in Toronto, Ontario; two in London, Ontario), offering specialty areas such as atopic dermatitis, carcinomas, melanoma, lupus and more.
“We are excited to expand our network and continue to apply our expertise in pairing up with specialists to integrate research into their clinical practices for the benefit of both the physicians and patients,” said Karri Venn, president of research for the company. “With plans to extend our dermatology group even further in 2021, LMC Manna Research is strengthening our mission to improve people’s health by making clinical research available to all, one therapeutic area at a time.”
Ashfield Health has appointed three executives to senior roles. The new hires include Agustin Ramirez, global strategy director for Ashfield MedComms; Beverly Pisarczyk, head of client services and promotional strategy for Ashfield MedComms in the US; and Kory Koske, executive creative director for Canale Communications.
“Beverly, Agustin and Kory are talented and experienced individuals who will bring tremendous value to the work we do and we couldn’t have been more excited to welcome them to the fast growing, global Ashfield Health family," said Amar Urhekar, global president of Ashfield Health.
