North Carolina-based PPD has established a joint venture with Taijitu Biologics to develop and commercialize a technology platform for the discovery of first- and best-in-class monoclonal antibody therapies in collaboration with MAB Discovery GmbH in Munich. The joint venture will provide drug discovery services based on this technology platform to global biopharmaceutical companies, enabling them to discover best-in-class monoclonal antibodies against both novel and validated targets.
PPD owns a majority stake in the Singapore-based joint venture, known as BioDuro Biologics, and has committed to invest $25 million. The company expects the joint venture will dilute 2011 earnings by approximately two cents per share, PPD says in a statement.
As OutSourcing-pharma notes, the decision to base BioDuro Biologics in Singapore fits the growth strategy PPD has undertaken in recent years. In December 2008, for example, the CRO set up a new R&D laboratory to cater for growing demand from customers in Southeast Asia.
The biologics market is one of the fastest growing areas in drug discovery. According to EvaluatePharma, the compounded annual growth rate of biologics is expected to be seven percent from 2009-2016, compared with a two percent growth rate for the small molecules market, PPD says in a statement.
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