Firm says new expertise and dedicated facilities will enhance existing services for early-stage drug testing.
Quintiles signed a definitive agreement to buy Advion BioSciences’ U.S.-based bioanalytical operation, Advion BioServices which offers GLP pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic (PK/PD) testing and other services. Once the deal has received regulatory clearance and been completed, the acquired firm will be renamed Advion Bioanalytical Labs, and operate as a Quintiles company.
Advion BioServices runs separate GLP bioanalytical, GLP immunoassay, and discovery/metabolism facilities in Ithaca (NY), Manassas (VA), and Indianapolis, respectively. The firm says selling the BioServices division will allow it to focus resources and growing its Systems and Consumables business, which will be known as Advion, Inc, and has a pipeline of new products due to be launched over the 6–9 months including a new, low-cost quadrupole mass spectrometer.
“We are in the final phases of launching our compact mass spectrometer, the expression CMS,” explains David Patteson, Advion president and CEO. “We have other new products destined to be released by next spring and our future has never been brighter. This latest progression of our business places Advion in a very strong financial position to exercise the next steps in achieving our vision.”
Quintiles says the industry is increasingly moving toward more extensive laboratory testing at the preclinical and Phase I–II trials stage of drug development to help reduce failure in later-stage clinical studies. “Adding a premier bioanalytical offering to our existing CAP-accredited central labs network creates a one-source solution for lab testing across the development spectrum,” comments Thomas Wollman, svp for Quintiles Global Laboratories. “We can now offer customers world-class PK/PD testing, molecular screening, drug discovery and metabolism, biomarker discovery, and immunoassay services to inform decision-making early on, helping reduce the risk of failure in expensive later-stage trials.”
