- New clinical development offices further Covance's geographic reach, expand access to patients -

PRINCETON, N.J., Feb. 3 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Covance Inc. (NYSE: CVD), one of the world's largest and most comprehensive drug development services companies, today announced the opening of three new clinical development offices in Kiev, Ukraine; Bratislava, Slovakia; and Tel Aviv, Israel to further enhance the company's global presence.

Covance has been providing clinical trial support in Central and Eastern Europe since 1994, with offices in Poland, Hungary, The Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Romania, and Russia. The new offices located in Kiev and Bratislava will support staff in Ukraine and Slovakia, including Covance's regional network of field-based CRAs throughout Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union.

Covance has been providing clinical trial support in South-Eastern Europe (Greece and Turkey) and the Middle East (Israel and Egypt), with Israel being a strategic location since 1995. The new Tel Aviv office serves to center operations and support staff across both regions.

"The establishment of this series of three new offices indicates our commitment to serve the needs of our clients for high-quality and timely clinical development on a global basis, leveraging the patient and investigator potential of emerging markets," said Robert J. Davie, PhD, vice president and general manager, clinical development services Europe, Covance. "We will continue moving forward with our strategy to expand into geographies that align our therapeutic focus with investigators that consistently demonstrate high-quality results, regulatory compliance, and enrollment performance to meet the current and future clinical research needs of our clients."

The new offices and expanded staff will help Covance expedite the execution of clinical studies and build strategic relationships with investigators and sites in countries well known for their excellent potential to contribute to global clinical trial conduct.

Covance offers clinical development services, including Phase I, II and III clinical trial support in more than 55 countries which include emerging markets across Central and Eastern Europe, Asia Pacific and Latin America. With a full-suite of services to take a drug through all stages of drug development, Covance offers extensive clinical and therapeutic expertise, global reach, proactive project management, and strong investigator site relationships to consistently deliver high quality data on time.

About Covance

Covance, with headquarters in Princeton, New Jersey, is one of the world's largest and most comprehensive drug development services companies with annual revenues greater than $1.5 billion, global operations in more than 20 countries, and more than 9,600 employees worldwide. Information on Covance's products and services, recent press releases, and SEC filings can be obtained through its website at www.covance.com.

Statements contained in this press release, which are not historical facts, are forward-looking statements pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. All such forward-looking statements including the statements contained herein regarding anticipated trends in the Company's business are based largely on management's expectations and are subject to and qualified by risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such statements. These risks and uncertainties include, without limitation, competitive factors, outsourcing trends in the pharmaceutical industry, levels of industry research and development spending, the Company's ability to continue to attract and retain qualified personnel, the fixed price nature of contracts or the loss of large contracts, and other factors described in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.