CRO news

You know things are turning around when contract research organizations start showing profits from earlier in the year. ICON did exactly that with a reported 12.1% increase in income for the second quarter of 2009. This is great news for the Ireland based CRO that like everyone else, took a beating toward the end of last year and early 2009. Keep ICON in mind as safe CRO bet with their recent work to acquire Phase I facilities along with international expansion of the company.

PharmaTimes Article on ICON earnings

Quintiles also reported recent expansion, this time in England. The private CRO announced a partnership with a London hospital to open a state of the art clinical research facility within the hospital. This news only furthers Quintiles hand in early drug development where they not only manage the trials, but also conduct them using privately owned facilities. If this idea works out well for Quintiles, don't be surprised if other CROs attempt to follow suit...

PharmaTimes Article


Finally, bad news for Human Genome Sciences after a period of only positive news from its pipeline: The FDA is not sold on HGS's anthrax treatment, so it likely points to a delay (temporary or permanent) on the the company's plans for approval of the product. More information to follow...

WSJ update on the situation