Preclinical veteran CRO CiToxLAB is acquiring AccelLAB, adding nonclinical research on medical devices to its existing comprehensive portfolio.
CiToxLAB sees AccelLAB as “a strategic target,” which will help increase its influence “in the cardiovascular, orthopedic fields and more generally in the regenerative medicine,” said Jean-François Le Bigot, chairman and CEO of CiToxLAB, in a statement. The fast-growing market of medical devices also complement the CRO’s core business of drug development.
Besides a good regulatory compliance record and the vicinity of the two companies’ sites--both near Montreal, Canada--one other reason behind CiToxLAB’s decision on an acquisition is the personal charisma of AccelLAB’s founder, Guy Leclerc, an interventional cardiologist who headed the department of Cardiology and Cardiac Surgery of the Centre Hospitalier de l’Université de Montreal.
As someone “with a strong entrepreneurship spirit,” as put by Le Bigot, Leclerc has been developing new cardiac stents, valves, pacemakers, among others for the company’s clients, and has most recently expanded the company’s services to orthopedic, ENT and dermatology. He will remain as the managing director of the AccelLAB site after the acquisition.
With the addition of AccelLAB, its 100-member team and 40,000-square-feet lab space, CiToxLAB now employs more than 1,000 people working at six facilities located in France, Canada, Denmark and Hungary. Services it provides span across a vast range of products, including pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals, veterinary products, cosmetics, food additives and medical devices. An estimate of a third of its revenues will be coming from the North America market.