Global CRO Pharmaceutical Product Development (PPD) has expanded its testing capabilities at its Brussels and Singapore labs, offering clients additional microbiology, peripheral blood mononuclear cell and molecular pathology services.

Like its facility in Highland Heights, Ky., PPD's labs in Brussels and Singapore now offer a full range of microbiology testing services for bacteriology, mycology, parasitology and microbioterrorism pathogens. All three labs can conduct extensive virology testing, including real-time polymerase chain reaction, viral load, genotyping and SNP analysis. The laboratories also have the capability to culture, quantitate, identify and determine antibiotic susceptibility and resistance for aerobic and anaerobic organisms.

"Adding these services to our Brussels and Singapore labs expands our ability to provide clients in Europe and Asia Pacific an important component of laboratory testing for infectious diseases," said Elena Logan, senior vice president of central labs for PPD. "PPD is unique in that we offer fully integrated clinical trial management and central laboratory services, enabling us to provide increased efficiencies, greater study flexibility and added value to our clients."

PPD has extensive experience in conducting infectious diseases studies, having conducted nearly 240 studies in this area over the past five years. During that time, central labs has handled almost 50 infectious disease studies that included nearly 25,000 screened patients.

"These new capabilities are significant enhancements to the broad portfolio of scientific and clinical expertise that we bring to the development of infectious disease products on behalf of our clients," said Carol Olson, M.D., Ph.D., executive medical director and PPD's therapeutic area head for infectious diseases. "They also further strengthen our ability to manage samples and efficiently conduct clinical studies in emerging regions where a growing proportion of infectious disease studies are performed."

PPD offers a flexible approach to microbiology testing, performing disk diffusion and/or broth dilution assays to determine antibiotic minimum inhibitory concentrations and provide data to be used for establishing breakpoints. Since infectious disease treatments being tested are not yet on the market, a diagnostic microbiology laboratory in a hospital relying solely on an automated platform may not have the flexibility needed to perform the required antibiotic susceptibility testing.

In addition to the expansion of its microbiology services, PPD also has continued to strengthen its testing services by selectively adding to its menu of validated assays, which enables the company to support the pharmaceutical industry's growing need for partners with extensive in-house testing platforms. Over the course of the past year, the company validated 100 assays, increasing its total menu of available assays to 800.