The Quintiles Transnational Corp. is teaming with DynPort Vaccine Co. LLC to establish and operate a phase 1 clinical trials unit to test infectious disease therapeutics in a seven-year federal contract worth an estimated $32.3 million.

Quintiles’ portion of the work will be conducted at its new 150-bed phase 1 trials unit in Overland Park, Kansas. That $48 million, 236,000-square-foot facility was dedicated in May 2007 and brought together 750 Quintiles employees previously employed at a phase 1 unit in Lenexa, Kansas, and operations related to later-phase trials at the former Marion Laboratories campus in south Kansas City.

The new facilityis one of Quintiles’ three phase 1 — or first-in-human — clinical trials units and its only one in North America. Quintiles is based in Durham.

According to the new federal contract, Quintiles and DynPort, based in Frederick, Md., will assess the safety of as many as four investigational drugs annually for the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), which is part of the National Institutes of Health.

As the prime contractor, DynPort will provide overall project management, clinical operations and management, quality assurance and co-development of protocols. DynPort is part of Computer Sciences Corp. (NYSE: CSC), a $16.5 billion informational technology services company based in Falls Church, Va.

Quintiles, with annual revenue of more than $2 billion, is the world’s clinical research organization, . The Kansas City area is Quintiles’ second-largest U.S. operation, behind the Durham headquarters.

Trials conducted at Quintiles’ Overland Park facility through the new federal contract will include therapeutic candidates for a broad range of infectious diseases. Investigational products tested could include measures to protect against viral (other than HIV), bacterial, parasitic and fungal pathogens, including NIAID-priority biodefense pathogens and emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases.

“Quintiles is pleased to expand our existing government contracting relationship with (DynPort),” Dr. Oren Cohen, senior vice president and managing director of Quintiles’ Public Health and Government Services business, said in a release. “The (Overland Park facility) provides an ideal setting to perform multiple, concurrent clinical trials.”

Source: bizjournals.com