Frontage Holdings Corp., a CRO with a presence in both the U.S. and China, through 11736655 CANADA LTD., a subsidiary of the group, and Frontage Laboratories, Inc., entered into a share purchase agreement with J&J Corporate Services, Inc., an independent third party. According to the agreement, 11736655 CANADA LTD. will purchase all of the outstanding shares of BRI Biopharmaceutical Research, Inc. (BRI) owned by J&J Corporate Services, Inc.
 
BRI is a CRO that was established by its current president and founder, David Kwok, more than 20 years ago in Vancouver, Canada. BRI is engaged in providing science-driven drug discovery and IND/NDA-enabling studies for pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies.
 
As a CRO, BRI offers a variety of services to its customer base, including but not limited to bioanalytical assays for measurement of drug candidates, metabolites and biomarkers, in-vitro drug metabolism/ADME, in vivo DMPK/ADME, formulation development, DS/DP stability and analytical CMC assays, and anticancer drug pharmacology assessment.
 
“Expanding our geographic foothold into Canada and the West Coast of North America will allow us to offer our clients proximal access to our DMPK and bioanalytical services. It will effectively increase the client base that we currently serve in this specific field, with the potential to increase our revenue generated through these highly specialized services,” said Abdul Mutlib, executive vice president of Frontage DMPK services. “In addition, the acquisition would extend our current contract research services into human tumor xenograft mouse efficacy models, obesity/diabetes rodent metabolic disease models, and the growing research market in human gut microbiome metabolism and biomarker assays. These services will further complement our current scientific expertise, capabilities and service portfolio to meet the needs of its broad client base.”
 
Song Li, founder and honorary chairman of Frontage, and chief executive officer of Frontage Labs. “We believe that outsourcing by the pharmaceutical industry is expected to continue to increase in North America and China. Upon completion of the acquisition, we will expand our capacity, with additional scientists, equipment, and facilities to be used in the provision of existing and novel services to our customers. The combined resources will also enable Frontage to become a global leader in providing DMPK services to our existing and new clients in pharmaceutical and agrochemical industries, and further our goal to establish new centers of excellence in DMPK throughout North America and China.”