Ardena, an early-phase contract development and manufacturing organisation (CDMO), has acquired the Netherlands-based bioanalytical contract laboratory, Analytical Biochemical Laboratory (ABL), widening the CDMO’s pre-clinical and clinical offering.
Strategic acquisition
“Our focus is to help customers navigate the hurdles of drug development and in order to do this effectively, we need to deliver a broad and integrated service offering spanning drug discovery, pre-clinical, CMC and clinical services,” explained Harry Christiaens CEO of Ardena. “With ABL’s expertise, we can now support sponsors with bioanalytical and drug discovery services to help them reach important pre-clinical and clinical milestones. These specialist capabilities complement our existing services, which include solid-state chemistry, analytical and formulation development, and early-phase clinical supply manufacturing.”
Through this acquisition Ardena now has three European facilities and employs 125 scientists.
“This is a very exciting time for everyone at Ardena as we combine our specialist capabilities and knowledge, enabling us to develop smart, and regulatory-compliant formulations for drug development companies of all sizes,” added Christiaens. “The acquisition of ABL was a strategic decision to further our goal to become a one-source contract partner for early-phase development. We expect to continue this ‘buy & build’ strategy in the coming months and years.”
“ABL has grown significantly since I first joined the company more than 25 years ago, and it’s exciting to be part of the next stage in its evolution. We’re looking forward to combining our expertise with that of the Ardena team to be able to offer our customers a more diverse and complete range of pre-clinical and early-phase drug development services,” said Ep Oosting, managing director of ABL. “Moreover, we will continue offering and even expand our standalone bioanalytical services for the pharmaceutical industry to assist customers that require a more specific service.”