Pacific Biometrics to be renamed Pacific Biomarkers
The Seattle-based contract research organisation’s (CRO) speciality is the provision of assay services for applications in both drug and diagnostic product development programmes on behalf of its clients.
CEO Ron Helm, who along with seven colleagues was re-elected to the company’s board, explained that the motivation for the name change was the recognition that most of its contract research services “are encompassed by the term ‘biomarker.’”
He went on to say that: “Over the past five years, we have seen an accelerating trend towards the use of biomarkers in all phases of drug development, and many expect that this will lead to true personalized medicine.
“Therefore, our business strategy to focus on this type of testing is even more relevant today than it was when the Company was founded."
Demand for contract biomarker services has increased markedly in recent times as the drug sector aims to generate maximum return on R&D investment by selecting only the most promising candidates at the preclinical stage.
Biomarker boom
Recognising these trends, a growing number of contract research organisations (CRO) have begun either boosting internal capacity or extending their biomarker offerings by forming partnerships with specialist laboratories.
For example, in the last few months Clinical Reference Laboratory (CRL) set up an analysis laboratory in collaboration with UK CRO Quotient Bioresearch, while Millipore expanded its European biomarker operations through the acquisition of BioAnaLab.
US CRO Covance has also been actively building biomarker capacity. In December, it bought shares in Caprion Proteomics to add that firm’s biomaker services to its offering.
This was followed, in July, by a doubling of the New Jersey CRO’s metabolite analysis capacity at its sites in Madison, Wisconsin and Harrogate in the UK and the acquisition of a gene expression lab from US drugmaker Merck & Co.
