COVANCE ADDS VIRTUAL CENTRAL LABORATORY CAPABILITY
Acquisition of VCL Extends Capabilities in Clinical Trial Testing |
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Princeton, New Jersey, October 3, 2002 — Covance Inc. (NYSE: CVD) announced the acquisition of Virtual Central Laboratory b.v. (VCL), a Netherlands-based company. VCL uses a novel proprietary system to harmonize laboratory results from local and regional laboratories to help expand the reach of traditional central laboratory services.
"This acquisition reflects our focus on delivering real-time data access to provide our customers with high-quality information that can help accelerate the drug development process," said Chris Kuebler, Chairman and CEO of Covance. "We believe that the inherent synergies between VCL and our existing central laboratory services will open new market opportunities for our customers."
Due to the decreasing availability of treatment-naïve patients, for example, more clinical trials are being conducted in regions of the world that are difficult and/or expensive to service via conventional methods. As a result, pharmaceutical companies need innovative solutions for making laboratory services readily available for investigators and ensuring that they themselves receive a complete, harmonized dataset that is available in a timely fashion.
VCL was founded in the Netherlands in 1995 by a clinical laboratory consortium focused on studies that required faster turnaround time, such as acute care or oncology studies, than traditional central laboratories could generally deliver. Usually this faster delivery could be achieved because of proximity to a local laboratory. Their technology also facilitated studies where sample transport logistics precluded the use of a traditional central laboratory due to feasibility or expense, for example, in India, China, Eastern Europe, and Latin America. Their proprietary technology and network of qualified laboratories harmonizes lab results by using standards and reference samples supplied by VCL.
"Our systems and processes will enable the central laboratory services operations at Covance to reach a larger population of investigators around the world," said Jaap Dijkman, Cofounder and Managing Director of VCL. Dr. Dijkman will continue as the Managing Director of Covance VCL.
"We believe that the blending of the two services will enable our customers to gather more clinical trial data in a centralized manner despite traditional geographic limitations," added Stephen Sullivan, President Covance Central Laboratory Services.
Covance Central Laboratory Services is the largest laboratory in the world devoted exclusively to global pharmaceutical development and operates central laboratory facilities in Indianapolis, USA; Geneva, Switzerland; and Singapore; and has exclusive associations in Cape Town, South Africa and Sydney, Australia. It has launched innovative solutions to better serve their customers including Covance LabLink, a real-time, web-enabled review of central laboratory information; an automated kit productions facility in Indianapolis; and unique laboratory specimen management systems.
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 17 countries, and approximately 7,000 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.
Statements contained in this press release, which are not historical facts, such as statements about prospective earnings, savings, revenue, operations, revenue and earnings growth and other financial results 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, Covance's ability to provide virtual central laboratory services on a large scale basis, and other factors described in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission including its Annual Report on Form 10-K and Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q. All information in this release is as of October 3, 2002. The Company undertakes no duty to update any forward looking statement to conform the statement to actual results or changes in the Company's expectations. |
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