Phase One Solutions, a new company offering early- and late-phase clinical research services to biopharmaceutical and medical device organisations, has set up in Miami, US on the basis of an asset sale by PRACS Institute, the newly constituted Cetero Research.

PRACS has completed the sale of its Miami clinical facility to C.R. I. Phase I Corporation as part of the formal reorganisation that followed PRACS Institute’s acquisition of Cetero Research on 20 June 2012. No financial details were disclosed.

The new company operating out of the Miami site as Phase One Solutions will maintain the associated early-phase research business while adding late-phase services to its portfolio.

The chief executive officer and managing director of Phase One Solutions is Dr Hugo Romeu, owner of Romeu Clinical Enterprises, which has been providing research, primary healthcare and educational services from its Miami base since 1995.

Romeu has also served as an investigator for Cetero Research and subsequently, PRACS Institute.

Cetero overhaul

In June, the financially troubled Cetero Research completed its planned asset sale to lenders, overhauled the company’s management, changed its identity and relocated its headquarters to Fargo, North Dakota.  

The US-based early-phase contract research organisation had filed for bankruptcy protection last March as regulatory and ensuing financial problems with studies conducted at the company’s Houston bioanalytical laboratory came to a head.

As part of that process, Cetero was sold to an investor group led by Freeport Financial and re-emerged under new management as PRACS Institute.

Seamless transition

Under the transaction, which does not include the adjacent clinical laboratory operations at the Miami site, clinical operations, staff and customer segments are expected to remain “largely intact” under the new ownership.