Xceleron Expands U.S. Operations
Xceleron, a leader in analytical strategies for drug development, announced recently a major milestone in the development of its US business with the signing of a lease on a multimillion dollar facility in Germantown, Maryland. The state-of-the-art facility will open in November 2007 housing a new accelerator mass spectrometer (AMS) and employing at least 20 people in scientific, commercial and administrative roles.
The move follows the successful establishment of Xceleron's North American business in 2005 when the company began to experience very significant demand for its services from what is estimated to be a $1bn market worldwide.
Professor Colin Garner, CEO of Xceleron commented: "This is a major strategic development in the evolution of our company. We will invest up to $7.5m on the purchase of a new AMS and associated equipment to carry out analysis on pharmaceutical drug candidates. Our new facility will allow us to substantially increase our development capacity to better serve our customers worldwide."
Scott Tarrant, Vice President, Business Development at Xceleron Inc. added "Since Xceleron started its US business in 2005; we have seen growth of in excess of 100% year on year'. Demand for our services both here and in Europe is growing fast and our aim is to continue to improve our service by increasing capacity and bringing our technology and expertise closer to our business partners. We have had tremendous support from Montgomery County and are delighted that we have been able to keep our business in this environment.
Dr. Pradeep Ganguly, Director of the Montgomery County Department of Economic Development, applauds Xceleron's decision to set up its new accelerator mass Spectrometer (AMS) in Germantown. "Xceleron is a highly innovative life sciences company, with a technology that will greatly advance drug discovery. We are delighted that this UK-based company has decided to expand in Germantown. We welcome them to our thriving life sciences cluster."
About Accelerator Mass Spectrometry
AMS enables the pharmacokinetic (PK) measurement of absorption, distribution, metabolism and excretion of drugs administered to humans in microdose quantities. The company's approach facilitates Phase 0 early human trials to identify the metabolic fate of a drug at the single molecule level. To date, studies have consistently shown data linearity between Phase 0 microdosing and traditional Phase I PK measures. Xceleron's technology offers streamlined clinical development with combined Phase I and mass balance studies, early detection of human specific metabolites, and absolute bioavailability studies which measure drug levels of simultaneously administered IV and oral doses in the same patient.
About Xceleron
Xceleron is a global leader in analytical strategies for drug development. It is a proven partner to a range of over 100 pharma-biotech businesses, adding value through optimisation of Exploratory Clinical Development programmes.
Xceleron is a successful, fast-growing business, recognised as the leader in its field and rich in intellectual property and know-how. Operating as a drug development centre of excellence the information Xceleron generates enables its partners to exercise informed decisions on new candidate biologics and drugs, faster and more cost-effectively than competing technologies.
Xceleron delivers a range of smart approaches to Exploratory Clinical Studies in Microdosing, Mass Balance, Absolute Bioavailability and Metabolite Profiling. By building its own substantive and innovative R & D programme in association with worldwide drug developers Xceleron continues to deliver new ultra-sensitive analytical services including Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS) molecule analysis, drug-drug interactions, metabolic-markers, protein labelling, standards and clinical data interpretation.
More information can be obtained on www.xceleron.com/
SOURCE: Xceleron