MicroTest Labs Strikes Two Deals

AGAWAM – MicroTest Laboratories announced yesterday that it has inked a contract with an English company testing a new cancer drug and another deal to provide lab testing on-site for a New Hampshire company.

MicroTest will formulate a drug that is being developed for treatment of several cancers. The company will also fill small vials with the drug for use by researchers testing it.

The contract is with Antisoma, the biopharmaceutical company in London that is in the second phase of testing a drug called AS1411, which is aimed at treating kidney cancer and acute myelogenous leukemia.

MicroTest founder and president, Steven G. Richter, declined to tell how much the 12-month deal is worth but said that his company will be producing ” fairly substantial quantities ” of the drug for the upcoming clinical trials.

MicroTest manufactured the drug for Antisoma’s first-phase clinical trials as well.

“It’s an exciting project,” Richter said. “We’re excited to be working with them on this and to maybe be a part of something that helps patients.”

Also yesterday, Symmetry Medical Inc., a company supplying products to the orthopedic device industry, announced that it is partnering with MicroTest to provide testing services at its Manchester, N.H., plant.

MicroTest will be testing cases used to hold medical devices while they are being sterilized and to store the devices until they are needed.

MicroTest will test how easy it is to clean and sterilize the cases between surgeries.

MicroTest already has two people on site at the Manchester plant, getting trained and putting together a lab, Richter said. He expects that the lab will grow to six employees over the next two years.

The partnership with Symmetry is a multiyear contract, he said.

“Our ongoing partnership with MicroTest Laboratories, a world-class test organization, provides Symmetry Medical with the ability to enhance its Total Solutions offerings to its multitude of medical product customers,” said Michael Curtis, senior vice president for medical products at Symmetry Medical, in a statement.

Richter said MicroTest’s laboratory testing and its enhanced contract manufacturing services have helped him build the company from 40 to 100 staffers in six years.

SOURCE: THE REPUBLICAN