US CRO Charles River (CRL) has unveiled a raft of executive changes and plans to restructure its PCS unit to provide customers with a more centralised approach to global drug development.
US laboratory group Rules-Based Medicine (RBM) is aiming to improve the utility and reproducibility of biomarker analysis in drug discovery with its new DiscoveryMAP 1.0 offering.
MDS Pharma Services posted an 18 per cent drop in revenue in its Q2 results, which also contained details of restructuring that will affect 180 people and cost $4m (€2.8m).
Gentronix has partnered with Apredica to provide a predictive toxicology service, which the companies believe can reduce the failure rates of drugs in late-stage development, saving clients time and money.
MDS Pharma Services is renovating and expanding its Taiwanese discovery pharmacology operation in response to growing global demand for work performed in Asia.
Microsoft is ramping up its efforts in drug R&D for personalised medicine through the acquisition of genomic analysis technology developed by Seattle, US firm Rosetta Biosoftware.
BioTrove is taking aim at the drug development sector with its RapidFire 300 absorption, distribution, metabolism, and elimination (ADME) screening system that, it claims, can analyse samples in a fraction of the time taken by traditional HPLC.
Targeted Molecular Diagnostics (TMD), which was acquired by Quintiles in November 2008, has launched two mutation assays to help clients develop more effective, personalised cancer treatments.
There has been “tremendous interest” in Fate Therapeutics’ Catalyst programme, which gives access to induced iPS cell technology as part of collaborative relationship between numerous companies.
Outsourcing-Pharma met with Charlesson to discuss the company’s business model, which sees its in-house activities benefit from revenues, experience and contacts generated by its preclinical service offering.
The Norway-based company was spun out of Bergen University a few months ago but its tools, which it believes give more information on a target than any other currently available tech, have already attracted interest from biotechs in Europe, the US and...
Canadian contract services group Patheon will roll out a cell based assay offering that it says will help the biopharmaceutical sector advance the development of the next generation of biologic drugs.
WuXi PharmaTech’s operating income fell by 25 per cent in Q1, in part because of an 81 per cent drop in revenues from manufacturing, but the company reconfirmed its 2009 financial guidance.
US non-clinical contract research firm Wil Research Laboratories has reduced its 700 strong workforce by 4 per cent, citing a drop in business due to the global economic downturn as the basis for the cuts.
AstraZeneca (AZ) has become the latest company to enter into a research collaboration with Jubilant, with the companies initially focusing on delivering preclinical candidates in the neuroscience area.
Charles River Laboratories (CRL) has bucked the CRO sector trend and reaffirmed its forecasts for 2009, citing an improved order book and better pricing as the reasons for its relative optimism.
Epistem claims its “plucked hair biomarker model” provides drugmakers with minimally invasive way monitoring epithelial response to cancer candidates that can significantly reduce development times.
A committee appointed by the Indian government has submitted a report into whether patent issues around microorganisms and NCEs are in compliance with TRIPS.
Indian CRO Siro ClinPharm is teaming up with New Jersey based pharma services firm Advanced Clinical Trial Solutions (ACT) to strengthen its position in the US cancer trial sector.
LGC Standards is increasing its presence in Asia through the opening of its first office in China, which will provide laboratory quality management services to the local market.
The past few days have seen a string of announcements from contract research organisations (CROs) which indicate that their appetite for international expansion and development remains unsated.
Just weeks after expanding its relationship with AstraZeneca, Chinese CRO BioDuro has been asked by Swiss drug major Roche to help with its discovery phase R&D programme.
ReSearch Pharmaceutical Services has expanded its activities into the Asian market via the purchase of Chinese contract research organisation (CRO) Paramax International.
Contract research organisation PPD has boosted its compound partnering programme with the purchase of dermatology specialist Magen BioSciences, and divested its presclinical research subsidiary Pedmont Research Centre.
Top 10 contract research organization (CRO) PharmaNet has gone into private hands following the conclusion of its acquisition by private equity firm JLL Partners.
Chinese contract research provider WuXi PharmaTech slipped to a fourth quarter loss in 2008, despite reporting a strapping 74 per cent increase in sales.
Eli Lilly’s pursuit of outsourcing deals continues unabated with the pharma major entering into a cardiovascular R&D collaboration with Zydus Cadila that has been described as a “new paradigm for global alliances”.
Porsolt, a French contract research organisation (CRO) specialising in preclinical pharmacology services, has said it plans to open a new facility in Europe as well as boost its presence on the other side of the Atlantic.
The Chinese unit of US contract drug discovery firm BioDuro says that AstraZeneca has expand its relationship with the firm to include the optimization of discovery research operations focused on drugs for respiratory and inflammatory disease.
CIT is launching a tissue cross-reactivity service, which will allow biotechs to screen monoclonal antibody-based therapies for tissue binding, in response to rising market demand.
US contract research organisation ACM Global Central Laboratory has bought its longstanding business partner Pivotal Laboratories of the UK in a bid to boost its international reach.
Belgian biopharmaceutical company UCB has contracted Proteros Biostructures of Germany to provide support in the structure-based discovery of small-molecule drugs.
An undercover investigation at a primate centre that conducts preclinical research has raised allegations of routine and unlawful mistreatment of the apes and wastage of taxpayers’ money.
Contract research company ChanTest has acquired fellow US firm Applied Clinical Sciences, a specialist in the development of drugs that affect G-protein coupled receptors (GPCR), one of the most fertile areas of drug discovery.
Genstruct and Gene Logic are partnering to improve their service offerings, with the collaboration hoping to produce network models that fully capture the toxicity potential of any compound.
UK contract services provider Melbourn Scientific has extended its service portfolio, predicting that demand for outsourced early R&D will increase in times of economic gloom.
Two UK-based companies, PRECOS and Argenta Discovery, have pooled their resources in the area of cancer drug discovery to provide services spanning “from hit finding to in vivo proof-of-concept.”
WIL Research Laboratories has expanded into protein and small molecule bioanalysis and genetic toxicology through the acquisition of Midwest BioResearch.
UK company Celsis saw softness in demand across its operating divisions in the third quarter ended December 31, and said it was considering “strategic alternatives” for its laboratory services unit.
Charles River Laboratories will reduce its workforce by 3 per cent, close its preclinical facility in Arkansas, US and sell off its Phase I trial site in Edinburgh, Scotland as part of a cost reduction programme.
Seattle, US-based Cell Therapeutics Inc is looking at ways to reduce its involvement in a preclinical research facility based in Bresso, Italy, as it tries to cut costs.
A team of US scientists have assembled clusters of cells into living ‘microtissues’ as part of a programme aimed initially at reducing the use of animal models in early-stage drug development.
US contract development firm Azopharma has begun offering microdosing at its AvivoClin facility in Daytona Beach, Florida, joining market leaders like Xeleron and Covance in the Phase 0 trial sector.
Pharmaceutical Product Development of the US is expecting to post a 12 per cent hike in revenues in 2009, helped by the recent opening of offices in Ireland and Singapore and new deals with Merck & Co.
Contract research firm Covance has been given the green light for its $100m (€77m) animal testing and drug candidate development facility in Chandler, Arizona, US.
Indian contract research firm Jubilant Biosys has teamed up with US company BioLeap to offer drug early-stage discovery services which incorporate computational drug design.
