CRO

BioDuro, Formex officially tie the knot at BIO

San Diego- and China-based BioDuro, which merged with San Diego’s Formex late last year, announced at BIO this week its formal acquisition of Formex to form the BioDuro CDMO, a move that helps it officially stand on its own as an end-to-end drug developer and manufacturer.

Since the beginning of the merger in November, the combined company has worked to meld the preclinical discovery and development expertise of BioDuro with Formex’s formulation, development and manufacturing specialties, along with the latter’s 44,000-square-foot San Diego facility.

BioDuro was founded in 2005 in China with a lab in San Diego as a pure CRO--in 2009, it became a subsidiary of global giant PPD for $77 million. PPD sold the company to current owner Bridgewest in 2012, and Bridgewest, which already owned Formex, reorganized the two for a more complete CDMO operation.

"We have delivered on a strategic objective to establish a contract organization that meets market demand for full service drug discovery, development, formulation and manufacturing, to increase probabilities for drug candidate success,” BioDuro (and former Formex) CEO Cyrus Mirsaidi said in a statement. “We have made significant investments in the combined company for expansion, training, and highly differentiated platforms, and are committed to grow and increase our service offerings both organically and through acquisitions to broaden our value offerings for our partners and clients."

BioDuro will continue to operate in its home country of China as a purely research-based outfit.

- here's the release

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