Big Pharma has bought into diagnostic development, and a look at FDA drug approvals over the past year shows that regulators are all aboard for targeted therapies. That makes for a spike in demand for molecular tests, and contract diagnostics developer ResearchDx is upping its capacity to cash in on personalized medicine.
The California company bills itself as a contract diagnostics organization, and it just cut the ribbon on a 30,000-square-foot facility in Irvine, increasing its footprint to develop more in vitro tests for clients in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and diagnostics industries.
For years, diagnostics development has largely been helmed by drugmakers with in-house testing capabilities, like Roche ($RHHBY) and Abbott Laboratories ($ABT), and pure-play diagnostics outfits like Qiagen ($QGEN) and bioMérieux. But ResearchDx is betting that the escalating demand for personalized medicine will outstrip the capacity of current market players, and the company is snagging business both from drug developers crafting their own tests and diagnostics companies looking for a hand in development.
Through its expansion, ResearchDx will have more space for more projects, the company said, providing services from initial assay conceptualization, discovery, optimization and validation to regulatory approvals.
- read ResearchDx's announcement