Icon Lab expands Irish facilities to meet demand
biopharma industry, has expanded its central lab facilities in
Ireland by 30 per cent to meet growing demand for clinical trial
testing services.
The newly redesigned laboratory, located in Dublin, also doubles the size of the operational facilities supporting project management and global logistics services.
The US-based company provides safety testing and biomarker measurements for clinical trials, mainly phase II and III, and the $1.5m (€1.2m) investment to enlarge its Dublin laboratory will allow the firm to further develop its flow cytometry technology, particularly useful in the development of oncology therapies.
There has been a growing demand for such services, particularly due to the host of new oncology, infectious disease and immunology therapies coming through the pipelines.
"Over the last five years, more and more drug makers have been outsourcing these tests to central laboratories such as ours," Robert Scott-Edwards, president of Icon Laboratories, told Labtechnologist.com.
"This expansion is part of Icon's efforts to ensure that it can respond to significant global growth in customer base and volume of clinical trials."
The expanded facilities are also part of a wider capacity development being employed by the global firm who is also planning the launch of a new lab facility in Singapore at the end of the year.
"The Asian market is a very important market," said Scott-Edwards.
"We already work in the Asian market in collaboration with partners but we wanted to have our own facilities."
Icon Laboratories, which had a growth rate of 60 per cent in the past year, provides services for 90 pharma and biotech companies in 52 countries.
