CRO

Accelovance adding 70 jobs in Wales after a big EU buy

U.S. CRO Accelovance is blueprinting a new site in Wales, planning to add 70 positions as it builds out its European ranks.

Thanks in part to an unspecified grant from the Welsh government, the company is looking at the greater Swansea area for its new regional hub, planning to recruit clinical researchers to staff the site over the next two years. With the move, Accelovance will shift its primary U.K. operations from Cambridge to Wales, the company said.

The planned expansion comes on the heels of Accelovance's February acquisition of the U.K.'s Altair Clinical, since renamed Accelovance Europe. That deal brought the CRO new outposts in England and Russia, plus staff throughout Europe, the Middle East and North Africa.

Before reaching into Europe, the Rockville, MD-headquartered company spent years building its capacity in the U.S., taking up a major presence in Research Triangle Park, NC, last year.

The CRO, long specializing in oncology and vaccine development, expanded into general medicine in 2013 with its acquisition of Radiant Development, the CRO arm of Radiant Research. That deal gave Accelovance new capabilities in cardiovascular, dermatology, nutrition and urology, plus outposts in Illinois and Florida.

- read the statement