Covance has signed a three-year, exclusive integrated drug development agreement with BioPontis Alliance to manage early development of scientific discoveries from academia. Covance will become BioPontis Alliance’s sole provider of drug development services, including discovery support, pre-clinical, bioanalytical, CMC, clinical, central labs and commercialization.

“We are excited to take this unprecedented step forward with Covance as our translational development partner,” said Richard Basile, CEO and principal of BioPontis Alliance. “Together, with our university and industry partners, we have established a new development model to fuel biopharma’s early stage pipeline and accelerate the availability of new medicines.”

In this unique early development model, Covance will integrate and manage the services required to move a compound from lead optimization into the clinic, providing the scientific and operational continuity that reduces the feasibility gap between academic intellectual property and human proof of concept.

“Designing customized solutions that meet the unique needs of each client is the hallmark of our partnering philosophy,” said John Watson, chief commercial officer and president, strategic partnering, Covance. “This collaboration creates a new way for Covance to leverage our scientific expertise and broad portfolio of drug development services to advance the promising science of academia and deliver greater medical innovation to the biopharmaceutical industry.”