Charles River Forms Preclinical Pacts with Target Health and Theorem
The partnerships are both similar and non-exclusive, Alan Bartlett, executive director of laboratory services in North America at Charles River, told Outsourcing-Pharma.com. He said Charles River decided to select Target and Theorem after winnowing down a larger pool of possible companies to work with.
Neither New York-based Target nor Pennsylvania-based Theorem has its own lab sciences group so Charles River is looking to fill their gaps in the areas of bioanalysis, immunogenicity and immunology so they can make a “seamless transition from nonclinical to clinical,” Bartlett said.
The deals will be supported by proprietary assays for large and small molecules, so for each study the companies will provide a compound’s details and then Charles River will develop the assay, sometimes from scratch, and then move through validation, Bartlett added.
Noting the downturn in preclinical studies over the previous three or four years, Bartlett said Charles River is seeing an upswing, especially “on the large molecule side.”
He also said that Charles River was only looking for two new partnerships in this case but will consider other partnerships moving forward.
