- New Biomarker VP Appointed

- Biomarker Center of Excellence Established in Greenfield, Indiana

PRINCETON, N.J., Dec. 16 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Covance Inc. (NYSE: CVD), a leading provider of drug development services, announced today that it has purchased a minority equity stake in Caprion Proteomics, the leading provider of proteomics-based services to the pharmaceutical industry, to further enhance its biomarker service offerings to clients.

Pursuant to terms of the agreement, Covance will serve as the exclusive contract research organization distributor of Caprion's proteomic biomarker services. In addition, Caprion will serve as Covance's exclusive proteomic discovery provider. Through this alliance, Covance and Caprion will offer pharmaceutical and biotechnology drug development customers a distinctive, innovative, and integrated biomarker solution.

Covance also announced today that it has hired a new vice president to lead its Biomarker Team and that it plans to establish a Biomarker Center of Excellence at its Greenfield, Indiana campus.

These strategic moves will enable Covance to further capitalize on the emerging high-growth service market in biomarker discovery, verification, validation, and deployment across the drug development continuum -- from early proof of concept through late-stage clinical trials and post-marketing surveillance. Currently, pharmaceutical companies are adopting biomarker strategies for the vast majority of new drug candidates, and it is predicted that within the next ten years biomarkers will be a standard aspect of drug development for any novel candidate. In fact, the U.S. FDA's 2006 Critical Path Initiative listed biomarkers as one of the two areas with the greatest impact on modernizing drug development and approval.

'We are very pleased to be adding Caprion's solid scientific capabilities and leading biomarker technology platform to Covance's line up,' said Deborah Tanner, Corporate Senior Vice President and President of Covance Central Laboratory Services. 'We expect that our clients will have a keen interest in this additional capability given Caprion's impressive track record of accelerating biomarker validation for early drug safety and efficacy assessment.'

'We are excited to join forces with Covance's market-leading central laboratory and world-class scientific talent,' said Martin LeBlanc, President and CEO of Caprion. 'Over the past five years, Caprion has established a large pharmaceutical customer base through employing our distinctive, best-in-class technology platform, which we expect will be further adopted in the market as a result of our alliance with Covance.