CrownBio expands into Louisiana primate research center with $1m facility

By Dani Bancroft

- Last updated on GMT

Primadomes (Image: NIRC)
Primadomes (Image: NIRC)
Crown Bioscience will invest $1m into a new subsidiary in Louisiana state to work alongside a new research facility at the New Iberia Research Center (NIRC).

CrownBio offers preclinical services that use rodent and non-human primate models to investigate drug efficacy, safety and further develop candidate to target a range of cardiovascular and metabolic diseases (CVMD), from diabetes to NASH.

The New Iberia Research Center is an affiliate of the University of Louisiana, and one of the largest non-human primate centres in the US.

According to Reuters​, CrownBio’s subsidiary will be called Crown Bioscience Louisiana. The new facility at the NIRC will further build on the firm’s development of CVMD therapies. 

Jean-Pierre Wery, CEO of Crown Bioscience, said “We chose to expand in Louisiana because of the growing biomedical science community there and the operational excellence that exists at NIRC.”

Clinical services

Located around 20 miles south of the University’s Lafayette campus, the NIRC spans 100 acres with more than 6,000 non-human primates.

Although the NIRC uses both macaques and African green monkeys in their research programs, their chimpanzee population has been retired from research and instead reside in a ‘sanctuary’ of enclosures called primadomes.

The NIRC’s clinical research organization services include PMDK, safety and efficacy studies for vaccines and other metabolic diseases.

Along with the $1m capital investment, 10 new direct jobs and 14 indirect jobs will be created at the new CrownBio facility at the NIRC.

François Villinger, NIRC Director, said in a statement “Our center in New Iberia has the research and analytical expertise and infrastructure in place to assist CrownBio to respond to the needs of its global clientele very quickly.”​ 

Global operations

With its HQ in Santa Clara, California, CrownBio also has operations in Indianapolis, the UK and China.

Last March, the firm acquired PreClinOmics​ to expand its CVMD capabilities as part of its global expansion​ plan.

Other purchases included significant investment into a new oncology platform​ and Molecular Response’s bank of xenograft models​. Last July the firm also opened​ its Center of Excellence for Oncology in San Diego.

Crown Bioscience was not available for comment.

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