Sep 27, 2005 Beckman Coulter Establishes Core Laboratory with Immune Tolerance Network for Cell-Based Assay Standardization in Clinical Trials
Fullerton and San Francisco, Calif. – (September 27, 2005) – Beckman
Coulter, Inc. (NYSE: BEC) today announced the opening of the Immune
Tolerance Network (ITN) Laboratory at Beckman Coulter’s Miami, Florida
facility. The lab was established to develop, standardize and
automate cell-based tests for clinical trials. Beckman Coulter
will receive the right of first refusal to commercialize any of the
newly developed tests.
“Standardizing complex assays is key to generating reproducible results
which can speed the biopharma process for developing new tests and
therapies,” said Elias Caro, executive vice president at Beckman
Coulter. “The establishment of this lab will enable us to take a
leadership role in clinical trial testing and takes advantage of our
skill and experience in standardization and automation.”
Together with staff from ITN, Beckman Coulter will work with leading
investigators from the U.S. and Europe to standardize and validate
ITN-defined assays currently in use in clinical trials related to
transplantation. Beckman Coulter’s Custom Biopharma Solutions
staff, ITN staff and clinicians will work together to define,
standardize and automate new and improved assays for monitoring immune
tolerance.
“The ultimate goal of this research is to achieve transplantation
tolerance, allowing the transplantation of tissues and organs without
the need for life-long immunosuppression. We are convinced that
to do this, we need new cellular assays of T cell responses that have
been validated, standardized, and automated. We believe that
Beckman Coulter has a special expertise in these areas and look forward
to working with the company in developing a number of these assays,”
said Hugh Auchincloss, Chief Operating Officer of the ITN.
“Collaborating with ITN gives us early entry into disease and biomarker
research, clinical trials and potential new theranostic and diagnostic
tests,” said Caro. “This positions us well to take a leading role
in the development and implementation of clinical trials.”
The Immune Tolerance Network is an international research collaboration
that aims to accelerate the clinical development of tolerance therapies
through novel clinical trials and parallel mechanistic studies. ITN is
planning, developing and operating 20 clinical trials in autoimmune
diseases, islet, kidney and liver transplantation, allergy and
asthma. The organization operates a dozen core facilities that
support these studies with state-of-the-art bioassay services.
Headquartered at the University of California, San Francisco, with
offices in Bethesda, Md. and Pittsburgh, Penn., ITN is supported by the
National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases, the National
Institute for Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases and the
Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. For more information, visit
www.immunetolerance.org.
Beckman Coulter, Inc. is a leading manufacturer of biomedical testing
instrument systems, tests and supplies that simplify and automate
laboratory processes. Spanning the biomedical testing continuum — from
pioneering medical research and clinical trials to laboratory
diagnostics and point-of-care testing — Beckman Coulter’s 200,000
installed systems provide essential biomedical information to enhance
health care around the world. The company, based in Fullerton, Calif.,
reported 2004 annual sales of $2.4 billion with 64 percent of this
amount generated by recurring revenue from supplies, test kits and
services. For more information, visit www.beckmancoulter.com or call
(800) 352-3433.
