Quintiles announces strategic alliance with London Genetics

Quintiles has formed a new strategic alliance with London Genetics to deliver pharmacogenetic solutions for the biopharmaceutical industry.

Financial details of the arrangement were not disclosed, but the company said the collaboration will provide the sector with advice on the application of pharmacogentics for personalised medicine.

The solutions offered under the non-exclusive alliance will include biomarker and assay development services, Quintiles explained.

"We have world-class expertise to help early adopters of personalised medicine use genomic technologies to improve drug discovery and development," commented Thomas Wollman, senior vice-president at Quintiles Global Central Laboratories.

He said the agreement will provide a "networked infrastructure to support those efforts virtually anywhere in the world".

London Genetics is a not-for-profit organisation founded in 2007 with funding from the London Development Agency. It provides companies with strategic advice on the application of pharmacogenetics for new drugs.

The firm recently entered a collaboration with Astrimmune to work on a biomarker identification programme for an early-stage pancreatic cancer vaccine.