ICON acquires US clinical testing facilities with acquisition of
Healthcare Discoveries
28 February 2008 Dublin-based ICON (NASDAQ:ICLR), a global provider of
outsourced development services to the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and
medical device industries, has acquired Healthcare Discoveries Inc, a wholly
owned subsidiary of Catalyst Pharma Group Inc. that conducts clinical
testing of pharmaceutical products.
ICON will pay $12m and up to a further $10m depending on performance.
Healthcare Discoveries operate an 85-bed clinical pharmacology unit in San
Antonio, Texas and have significant experience of delivering high quality
early-phase development programmes. “The acquisition of Healthcare
Discoveries is an important step for ICON” said ICON CEO Peter Gray. “It
gives us a clinical pharmacology platform in the United States to complement
our existing European Phase I operations. As well as gaining an outstanding
facility, we are bringing into ICON an experienced team that has an
excellent market reputation” Healthcare Discoveries will become part of an
early-phase development portfolio within the ICON Development Solutions
division, which includes an existing 80-bed clinical pharmacology unit based
in Manchester, England.
Dr Thomas Frey, President of the Development Solutions division, added
“The investment in Healthcare Discoveries will enable us to meet the growing
demand for highly scientific first-in-human and full spectrum of clinical
pharmacology studies that are a critical part of the drug development
process. We look forward to integrating these additional capabilities into
our broad drug development service portfolio”
Dr Richard Anthony, CEO of Catalyst Pharma Group commented “We are delighted
that Healthcare Discoveries will become part of the ICON group. Catalyst has
worked with Dr. Dennis Ruff, President of Healthcare Discoveries, for the
past four years to build a reputation for excellence in Phase I research”. |