Complementary behavior: Research orgs ally in protein, discovery work

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind.—BASi, based here, and the Indiana Centers for Applied Protein Sciences (INCAPS), based in Indianapolis, have agreed to bring their respective contract research strengths together in a corporate alliance.

 

For its part, INCAPS focuses on proteomics and protein characterization studies using both current and emerging technology platforms, while BASi is geared toward in-life safety and pharmacology assessment of new drug substances with a small molecule focus.

 

"Our company is focused on developing innovative services and products that increase efficiency and reduce the cost of taking a new drug to market," says Peter Kissinger, chairman and CEO of BASi. "INCAPS has assembled a first-rate team and state-of-the-art instrumentation, informatics and statistical analysis tailored toward discovery biology and biomarkers. This is an increasingly important part of what our clients require in order to get to market, and it makes more sense for us to partner with INCAPS rather than add these resources to our own business."

 

The geographic proximity of INCAPS to BASi's West Lafayette and Evansville laboratories was also a major convenience, Kissinger notes. The companies also share several clients in common already.

"This alliance is especially important for us because there is increased interest in monitoring the safety and effectiveness of drugs by examining proteomic responses to chronic and acute dosing," Kissinger adds. "It's all about understanding metabolic mechanisms."

 

The deal also works out well for INCAPS, because the organization can offer clients "one-stop shopping" for large- and small-molecule work, notes Dr. James Ludwig, CEO of INCAPS, adding that BASi's good reputation in bioanalytical chemistry services was a major draw for him in forming the alliance.

 

This isn't the first time this year that BASi has formed such an alliance. The company also penned a deal recently to provide complementary preclinical research services for pharmaceutical, medical device and biotechnology companies, as well as for medical schools, with MicaGenix of Greenfield, Ind. As with the INCAPS deal, a pool of common clients and geographic proximity of the organizations played a major role for BASi in forming the relationship. But whereas INCAPS provides proteomics experience, MicaGenix has a strong focus on mutagenicity work, histopathology services and regulatory package preparation and review.

 

Moreover, both deals follow a recent reorganization by BASi of its Baltimore and United Kingdom facilities that Kissinger says has helped his organization to not only be in a position to offer better and more efficient services to clients, but also to free up BASi's Baltimore Clinical Research Unit focus on adding new pharmaceutical and biotech clients and on providing complementary services in markets already served by other BASi locations—INCAPS and MicaGenix just being the first examples of that.