Quintiles, Inc. (California)

March 31, 2015 By Alex Keown , BioSpace.com Breaking News Staff RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C. – Quintiles Transnational Holdings Inc. , a contract research company, and Quest Diagnostics Incorporated , a medical test maker, will combine forces to form the world’s second-largest global clinical trials laboratory services business, the companies announced this morning . The companies will combine clinical trials laboratory operations in an effort to “succeed in the increasingly complex biopharmaceutical industry,” the companies said in a joint press release. The companies said customers will benefit from a business model that is “singularly focused on delivering top-quality laboratory services informed by deep medical and clinical knowledge.” The venture will enable end-to-end companion diagnostic development with regulatory, reimbursement and commercial strategies, to help biopharmaceutical customers’ precision medicine efforts. The joint work will be assisted due to Quest Diagnostics ’ elaborate supply chain that serves approximately half of the physicians and hospitals in the U.S. and includes 2,200 service centers, 3,000 couriers and connectivity solutions used by 250,000 healthcare providers. Market reaction to the news of the joint venture has been blasé this morning, with Quintiles, Inc. having no change since its Monday closing at $68 per share. Quest (DGX) on the other hand, is slightly down at $77.49 per share. Durham, N.C.–based Quintiles , which helps develop and commercialize many pharmaceuticals, will own 60 percent of the joint venture, with Madison, N.J.–based Quest owning the rest, the companies said on Tuesday. Financial terms of the deal were not revealed, however the companies speculated joint venture last year would have generated approximately $575 million in revenues. The joint venture will be led by a management team appointed from both Quintiles , which posted earnings of $4.2 billion in 2014, and Quest Diagnostics . The deal is expected to be finalized by the end of the third quarter of 2015, the companies said. The new entity also will leverage a number of additional resources from the broader Quintiles and Quest Diagnostics organizations. Quest Diagnostics draws from 20 billion test results, and Quintiles ’ assets include electronic health records representing more than 60 million patient lives and a network of 250,000 clinical investigators. Tom Pike , chief executive officer of Quintiles , said the venture will merge the “scale, expertise and end-to-end capabilities of the broader Quintiles and Quest Diagnostics organizations with a laser-like focus on providing world-class laboratory services that will help improve customers’ probability of success.” In addition to laboratory support for clinical trials, the companies expect other benefits from the joint operation, including new ways to enhance patient recruiting and retention for clinical trials; speed the validation, development and commercialization of companion diagnostics; enhance support of real-world late phase studies; and develop new population-health analytics and tools. Earlier this month Quintiles forged a partnership with startup Tute Genomics , a partner of Google Inc. , for access to its database of 8.5 billion annotations of genetic variants.

January 20, 2015 By Mark Terry , BioSpace.com Breaking News Staff Speculation is growing about what contract research organization (CRO) Pfizer will choose as a third alliance partner. Rumors spun this week that Quintiles was the front runner, but other sources suggested a privately-owned CRO was to be chosen. At the April 2014 Partnerships in Clinical Trials (PCT) conference held in Las Vegas, a Pfizer spokeswoman indicated the company was satisfied with their CRO contracts with Icon and Parexel , but suggested a third might be chosen. “We are exploring the option of bringing in a third alliance partner but we haven’t made any announcements on this yet.” At that time, Ross Muken , an analyst with ISI Group suggested Quintiles . “ Parexel and Icon shouldn’t be that impacted from a volume standpoint.” A Quintiles spokesperson said in a statement, that it “does not comment on specific business development efforts,” adding, “ Pfizer has been and remains a customer.” Two privately-owned CROs, PPD and inVentiv , considered by some to be the lead prospects if, indeed, Pfizer opts for a third alliance partner, have been ambiguous in their responses to the media. “As a general policy,” said PPD director of corporate communications and public affairs, Ned Glascock , in a statement, “and because of confidentiality agreements with our clients, I hope you will understand that PPD neither confirms nor denies involvement in any specific study or work with any specific client.” “We have a long-standing relationship with Pfizer ,” said inVentiv spokeswoman Danielle DeForge in a statement, “and continue to provide them with a wide range of best-in-class CRO services to help them achieve their clinical goals faster and with higher quality results.” Pfizer is withholding specifics, merely stating that it is looking a third clinical trial contractor to supplement existing vendors. On Jan. 7 BioSpace reported that Boston, Mass.-based Parexel International (PRXL) had announced plans to hire 450 GlaxoSmithKline employees and create its own dedicated business unit to service GSK in the U.S. Parexel indicated it expects to continue having plenty of business with big pharma in 2015, regardless of whether they face competition with one of their big clients, Pfizer . “ Pfizer already utilizes other vendors for specialized services outside Icon (ICLR) and Parexel ,” said Evercore ISI analyst Ross Muken in a statement. “We view it is unlikely that it proves to be a negative for either player on an absolute basis. If Pfizer adds an additional partner it is likely to be incremental to existing plans.” It has been suggested that Parexel had taken on a disproportionate number of Pfizer studies that were in progress, and many of those studies wrapped up in the first half of 2014. “I think it’s just normal ebbs and flows,” said Parexel CEO Josef von Rickenbach in a statement, “nothing particular to be read into the relationship.” BioSpace Temperature Poll What Are Your Predictions for the Price Bidding War? The market has been buzzing about an escalating price war between large payers like Express Scripts and Big Pharma. Multiple deals last week showed Gilead forming exclusive pacts and smaller companies like Kite Pharma starting talks early. What do you think will be the effect on prices? BioSpace wants your opinion! var _polldaddy = [] || _polldaddy; _polldaddy.push( { type: "iframe", auto: "1", domain: "biospace.polldaddy.com/s/", id: "what-are-your-predictions-for-price-bidding-war", placeholder: "pd_1421711966" } ); (function(d,c,j){if(!document.getElementById(j)){var pd=d.createElement(c),s;pd.id=j;pd.src=(' '==document.location.protocol)?' ':' ';s=document.getElementsByTagName(c)[0];s.parentNode.insertBefore(pd,s);}}(document,'script','pd-embed'));

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Quintiles ranks 6th in this year’s InformationWeek 500, a list of the top technology innovators in the United States. The annual list was revealed last night (September 11th) at an awards ceremony in Dana Point, CA.