In a nod toward the growing use of contract research organizations in drug development, Johnson & Johnson is boosting its use of China's WuXi PharmaTech's R&D services. J&J's Janssen Pharmaceutica will turn to WuXi for discovery chemistry, discovery biology, chemical and analytical development services, formulation, and preclinical and bio-analytical services. Up to now Janssen's work with WuXi involved only discovery chemistry.
"This agreement leverages WuXi's strong R&D capabilities from early-stage discovery to commercial production to deliver reliable, high quality and cost-efficient services to J&JPRD," says Dr. Ge Li, chairman and CEO of WuXi. "Our partnership demonstrates the strength of our innovation driven and fully integrated R&D service platform."
Outsourcing-Pharma notes that there have been a series of groundbreaking deals between pharma companies and CROs, including the recent $1.6 billion pact between Eli Lilly and Covance.
- here's Wuxi's release
- read the report from Outsourcing-Pharma