Quintiles Transnational Corp. today announced that it has acquired Targeted Molecular Diagnostics (TMD) of Westmont, Ill. 

The addition of TMD to Quintiles’ Global Central Laboratories strengthens Quintiles’ service offerings in oncology, an increasingly important growth area of drug development.  It provides  strong capabilities in tissue-based testing, a critical component of the modern oncology drug development process.

“This acquisition is a logical addition to Quintiles’ service offerings,” said Tom Wollman, Senior Vice President, Quintiles Global Central Laboratories.  “It provides us with advanced in-house pathology capabilities, including telepathology,” Wollman continued.  “Most importantly, TMD’s knowledge in biomarker expression analysis adds significant new proficiencies sought by our customers.”

TMD’s biomarker technology will help Quintiles’ customers better understand how their drugs work and in which populations they’re most likely to perform best. “With the addition of TMD’s expertise, we can help customers develop novel, targeted cancer therapies and get them to market much faster by employing biomarkers in the development process,” explained Dr. King Jolly, Senior Vice President of Drug Development Partnerships for NovaQuest, the managed partnership group of Quintiles. “We are currently working with large pharmaceutical companies on the design of development programs.  TMD will enhance our capabilities to meet those companies’ needs,” Jolly concludes.

Read the full press release on the TMD acquisition.