Eckert & Ziegler, a global isotope-technology specialist based in Berlin, Germany, is expanding its offering into innovative pharmaceutical services by acquiring bioanalytical contract research organisation Vitalea Science, Inc.
The German parent Eckert & Ziegler Strahlen- und Medizintechnik AG, whose activities already include cancer therapy and radiopharmaceuticals, has entered into a definitive agreement through its Californian subsidiary, Eckert & Ziegler Isotope Products, Inc, to acquire all the stock and assets of Vitalea Science for an undisclosed sum.
The US-based company provides drug-development services to researchers and clinicians supported by validated Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS) technologies, whose high sensitivity enables carbon-14 tagged biomolecules and pharmaceuticals to be detected in microgram-sized specimens.
Vitalea also provides AMS services for the characterisation and identification of non-medical carbon-based compounds.
Unique capability
The company’s scientists include the original developers of AMS technology for applied bioscience, working at Vitalea’s headquarters in Davis, California.
This is close to the University of California Davis campus, a leading research centre for AMS, PET (positron emission tomography) tracers and early- phase medical studies, Eckert & Ziegler noted.
“Vitalea is a unique company with a very unique capability built around the BioMICADAS device, which is the state-of-the-art in AMS technology,” commented Frank Yeager, president and chief executive officer of Eckert & Ziegler Isotope Products.
