BEIJING--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Pharmaron, a fully integrated contract research organization offering R&D services for the life science industry, today announced the acquisition of Xceleron Inc. Xceleron is a Maryland, US-based globally leading Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS) specialist for life sciences.

The AMS platform developed at Xceleron has unique sensitivity and features that allows identification and analysis of therapeutically and biologically relevant entities, including small molecules to large molecules at low concentrations. With this, Xceleron has supported regulatory filings for dozens of marketed drugs since 1998. The technology has been developed to support discovery of novel biomarkers and potentially new disease-modifying targets.

Xceleron’s use of microtracers and AMS detection technology complements Pharmaron’s existing platforms of radiolabelled compound manufacturing and radiolabelled metabolism operated in the United Kingdom. The combination of AMS and other established analytical technologies at Pharmaron supports early discovery, preclinical and clinical development. This acquisition is part of Pharmaron’s strategy to provide fully integrated, end-to-end R&D services.

Dr. Boliang Lou, Chairman and CEO of Pharmaron commented: “We are pleased to welcome another industry-leading R&D platform to the Pharmaron Group, once again demonstrating our commitment to becoming a global leader in drug R&D services. The addition of Xceleron develops and differentiates our capabilities in translational science and clinical development services, and further strengthens our ability to support our worldwide collaborators and partners with fully integrated pharmaceutical R&D services.”

Dr. Michael Butler, CEO, Xceleron commented: “With the support of our investors, the Xceleron team has worked diligently to create an analytical platform that is now accepted as a valuable component of the contemporary pharmaceutical development tool-box. We are excited to become a part of Pharmaron’s integrated drug research and development platform as it allows for new opportunities to serve our customers arising from the combination of our AMS technology with Pharmaron’s extensive and growing capabilities.”

Commercial details on the transaction are not being disclosed.

About Pharmaron
Pharmaron is a private, premier R&D service provider for the life sciences industry. Founded in 2003, Pharmaron has invested in its people and facilities, and established a broad spectrum of R&D service capabilities ranging from synthetic and medicinal chemistry, biology, DMPK, pharmacology, safety assessment, radiochemistry and radiolabelled metabolism to chemical & pharmaceutical development. With over 4,000 employees, and operations in China, the United States, and the United Kingdom, Pharmaron has an excellent track record in the delivery of R&D solutions to its partners in North America, Europe, Japan and China. www.pharmaron.com

About Xceleron
Xceleron, located in Germantown, Maryland, pioneered and developed the robust use of 14C microtracers and AMS analytical technology in pharmaceutical R&D. Since 1998, Xceleron has designed new preclinical and clinical investigations around the unique analytical features of AMS. With increased adoption, Xceleron developed a proprietary approach to ensure analytical robustness at the very low levels of detection compared to complimentary traditional platforms such as LC-MS/MS and Liquid Scintillation Counting. Benefiting from Xceleron’s work, AMS detection is now widely accepted as a valuable analytical tool in the quest for improved efficiency in pharmaceutical R&D.