Quotient: GE deal secures customers' 14C supply ahead of Cardiff move
UK contract service group Quotient moved into the 14C market with the acquisition of Amersham Radiolabelleing Services in June, forming a chemistry and metabolism unit and investing £15m (€17m) to build a new facility in the Welsh capital, Cardiff.
Since the deal, former Amersham owner GEHC, has provided customers with labelled compounds and, under today’s agreement, will continue to do so until Quotient’s operations in Cardiff are up and running.
Quotient CEO Paul Cowan told Outsourcing-pharma that: "Work on the new facility is on schedule," adding that "we sought the extension so as to increase the overlap between when the new facility opens and when we have to vacate the old facility."
Cowan also said that the extension will allow Quotient to manage the logistical challenges of moving from the old facility more easily and added that regulatory approval for the Cardiff site is on track for operations to begin in March.
In a press statement, Stephen Lewinton, MD of Quotient’s chemistry and metabolism unit, said extension of the agreement with GEHC “allows client work to continue as normal at the existing labs until commissioning of the new facility is completed.
“The bottom line is that we can assure our clients that at no time will all of the labs be closed, and so service can effectively be maintained throughout the transition period.”
By moving into contract radiolabelling service Quotient, which claims that its facility "will house the largest and most experienced team of radiosynthesis chemists in the world," is entering a market that, although small at the moment, will expand considerably if Phase 0 microdosing studies become widely adopted in the pharmaceutical industry.
