US-based biopharmaceutical services company Quintiles Transnational has boosted its capacity to support clinical trials across Europe by opening an expanded regional facility near Edinburgh, Scotland.
Quintiles first announced plans in June 2007 for the new facility on the Alba Campus business park in Livingston. The 115,000 sq ft building notably more than doubles the capacity for Quintiles’ local central laboratory operation.
The purpose-built facility in Livingston consolidates three buildings into a single state-of-the-art complex, providing space for more than 500 employees in the Central Laboratories arm and in Clinical Development Services including project management, regulatory affairs and data management.
The building also houses one of Quintiles’ three Assay Development Labs, which specialise in the technical transfer of methods and assays and the validation of commercial instruments and assays for research.
The centrepiece of the new facility is an 80,000 sq ft Central Laboratory, allowing for higher throughput of clinical trial materials. According to Quintiles, the expanded laboratory can process up to three times more kits a day. Onsite services include chemistry, haematology, urinanalysis, serology markers, coagulation, specimen management, endocrinology and biomarkers.
Including its new Scottish facility, Quintiles has the largest central laboratory network in the world accredited by the College of American Pathologists, the company noted. That network encompasses sites in Argentina, Brazil, China, India, Japan, Scotland, South Africa, the US and Singapore.
Quintiles’ Central Laboratory in Singapore will relocate to a new facility later this year.
