Quintiles Transnational Corp. has acquired Targeted Molecular Diagnostics (TMD) of Westmont, Ill. The addition of TMD to Quintiles’ Global Central Laboratories strengthens Quintiles’ service offerings in oncology, an increasingly important growth area of drug development. It provides strong capabilities in tissue-based testing, a critical component of the modern oncology drug development process. “This acquisition is a logical addition to Quintiles’ service offerings,” said Tom Wollman, Senior Vice President, Quintiles Global Central Laboratories. “It provides us with advanced in-house pathology capabilities, including telepathology,” Wollman continued. “Most importantly, TMD’s knowledge in biomarker expression analysis adds significant new proficiencies sought by our customers.” TMD’s biomarker technology will help Quintiles’ customers better understand how their drugs work and in which populations they’re most likely to perform best. “With the addition of TMD’s expertise, we can help customers develop novel, targeted cancer therapies and get them to market much faster by employing biomarkers in the development process,” explained Dr. King Jolly, Senior Vice President of Drug Development Partnerships for NovaQuest, the managed partnership group of Quintiles. “We are currently working with large pharmaceutical companies on the design of development programs. TMD will enhance our capabilities to meet those companies’ needs,” Jolly concludes. TMD is a privately held, oncology-focused, specialty diagnostic laboratory serving the drug development process. TMD provides guidance through biomarker expression analysis and supports the development of numerous targeted therapies in oncology. The company works with customers in the design of effective clinical trials that reduce the time and cost of bringing new compounds to market. TMD currently supports clinical trials for pharmaceutical and biotech companies in over 40 countries and offers over 100 biomarker assays. “Our team is eager to join the world’s leading pharmaceutical services company,” said TMD President and Chief Executive Officer Dr. Sarah Bacus. “We are dedicated to improving the survival and quality of life for cancer patients through our biomarker technologies in support of targeted therapy development. We believe the combination of our expertise in oncology combined with Quintiles’ global reach will provide customers with exceptional service delivery.” Bacus founded TMD in 2004, creating an infrastructure designed to respond to the complex needs of managing large global clinical trials, a natural fit for Quintiles’ core business. She is regarded as a world-renowned expert on targeted therapy and diagnostics development.
