Quintiles Acquires Clinical Packaging Services Company

Quintiles Transnational Corp. has acquired Simirex Inc. and Simirex International Ltd., which provide clinical packaging services for the pharmaceutical industry. Simirex's clinical packaging services support the clinical trials industry, including primary packaging in bottles and blister packs, blister card design, label design and printing, encapsulation, management of controlled substances, storage and inventory management, shipping and drug returns.

Quintiles acquired Simirex in exchange for Quintiles stock in a pooling of interests transaction that is expected to be neutral to slightly accretive to Quintiles' earnings per share. Simirex will be integrated into the CRO Services Group of Quintiles Transnational Corp. as a specialty business unit. "The acquisition of Simirex significantly expands our U.S. clinical trials packaging capability and complements our facilities in Europe for global clinical trials," said Jim Ogle, chief operating officer, Quintiles CRO. "Lack of availability of a drug is a common reason for the delay of the start of a clinical trial. By having the capabilities to package clinical trial materials in the U.S., Quintiles can better control the availability of drugs and keep customers' projects on track."

Simirex, previously privately held, is headquartered in Mount Laurel, NJ, where it has a 90,000-sqft facility housing about 100 employees. This facility complements the packaging facilities already owned by Quintiles in Bathgate and Edinburgh, Scotland, and ensures that Quintiles can effectively service customer needs in both Europe and the United States. Peter Bernardo Ph.D., will continue to lead Simirex as its chief operating officer.