Onyx Scientific under new ownership

Onyx Scientific reports that it has been acquired by Ipca Laboratories UK Ltd (see here), the UK arm of Indian pharmaceutical company Ipca Laboratories. At a presentation to our staff on Tuesday I stated that there wouldn't be any job changes at Onyx but was contradicted by Pranay Godha, Executive Director of Ipca. He stated that he expected an increase in the numbers at Sunderland as the company grew, as we aim to double the size of the company. There will be considerable synergies as the Onyx-Covance group can now offer all scales of chemistry from medicinal chemistry to commercial manufacture.

Cancer drugs' slow approval rate

According to the Friends of Cancer Research, approval of a new anti-cancer drug takes about 182 days in the US but 350 days in Europe. In Europe this results in cash flow problems of an additional year on top of the development time and must be difficult for pharma companies to bear. One tried and tested method to optimise the drug development schedule is to outsource the chemistry to a chemistry provider. Companies such as ours can ensure production of the drug is not on the critical path and ensure that if you do have to wait for the EMA you get to that point as early as possible.