COVANCE OPENS NEW, PURPOSE-BUILT FORMULATIONS FACILITY AT ITS NONCLINICAL LABORATORY IN VIENNA, VIRGINIA
New facility assures dose formulation quality and flexibility for safety assessment studies |
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Princeton, New Jersey, April 26, 2002 — Covance Inc. (NYSE: CVD) is pleased to announce the opening of its new state-of-the-art formulations facility at its nonclinical laboratory based in Vienna, Virginia. The new facility assures the availability of the highest quality formulations for a full-range of safety assessment studies. The $1.5 million formulations facility was built to support an overall site expansion, which included an increase in animal room capacity and other laboratory improvements.
The new purpose-built facility, which has more than doubled in size from the previous formulations area, includes twelve dedicated rooms for dose preparations, effectively lowering the risk of cross-contamination while improving process flow. The expanded work area allows Covance's Virginia laboratory to more efficiently receive, inventory, store, and prepare pharmaceutical and biotechnology products for use in safety assessment studies. In addition, the formulations area has been relocated to an area adjacent to in-life study rooms and the analytical laboratory, enhancing efficiency and timeliness while further reducing the risk of cross-contamination. To further its quality controls, Covance is also implementing a networked systems application in Vienna that automates test article accountability, provides integrity checks, verifies formulation components using bar code technology, and uploads weighing data to a centralized database. This proven system has already been successfully implemented at Covance's nonclinical laboratories in Madison, Wisconsin and Harrogate, England.
"Quality formulations provide the foundation for successful in-life safety assessment programs," said David Brusick, Vice President, Toxicology. "This new purpose-built facility represents the best in industry practice today. Covance now has even more flexibility to meet the important requirements of our sponsors' study protocols while further enhancing our quality and service levels."
Covance has extensive expertise with all standard formulation preparations, including suspensions, solutions, capsule preparations, dietary preparations, and dermal preparations. Covance, the world's leading provider of contract toxicology services, offers the most comprehensive safety assessment service portfolio available to the drug development industry, including specialty services such as developmental and reproductive toxicology, safety pharmacology, and inhalation toxicology. The investment in the new formulations facility exemplifies Covance's commitment to quality and its effort to meet the evolving needs of the drug development industry.
Covance, with headquarters in Princeton, New Jersey, is one of the world's largest and most comprehensive drug development services companies with 2001 pro forma revenues of $800 million, global operations in 16 countries, and approximately 7,100 employees worldwide. Information on Covance's products and services, recent press releases, and SEC filings can be obtained through the website in the About Covance area. |
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