Science Exchange, a secure enterprise platform and aggregator for outsourced research and development (R&D), announced a strategic partnership with Alector, a biotech company pioneering the discovery & development of immuno-neurology therapies for neurodegenerative disorders, to provide the company’s scientists access to a private R&D marketplace to accelerate their research.

"The Science Exchange platform solves the challenges of R&D outsourcing: we provide scientists with efficient access to a diverse network of qualified suppliers under a single relationship, and at the same time we provide sourcing departments with more information and control over their outsourcing spend," said Elizabeth Iorns, Ph.D., co-founder and CEO of Science Exchange. “We are thrilled to be the provider of Alector’s R&D marketplace and help bring potential treatments for Alzheimer’s disease to patients more quickly and efficiently. Especially following the exciting news on Alector’s partnership with AbbVie to advance therapies for Alzheimer’s disease, it’s clear that Alector has extremely promising drug targets—we’re honored to help accelerate these important discoveries.”

The Science Exchange-powered R&D marketplace enables scientists to instantly order more than 6,000 unique scientific services from the 2,500 CROs, academic labs, and government facilities that are available under a single Science Exchange contract. The partnership also will provide Alector with a platform to effectively manage the company’s outsourced R&D investments, including the ability to track supplier utilization, trends, and performance, which also supports the need for compliance with internal policies and external regulations.

Alector is the latest R&D company to choose to partner with Science Exchange, and joins more than 30 enterprise organizations, including 10 of the top 20 pharma companies, that use Science Exchange to more efficiently manage outsourced R&D. 

"Science Exchange offers a unique platform for connecting with a broad network of qualified scientific service providers," said Arnon Rosenthal, Ph.D., co-founder and CEO of Alector. “It is our hope that working with Science Exchange will enable us to more quickly advance discovery and development of novel immuno-neurology therapies.”

Under the agreement, Science Exchange will support company-specific governance, approval workflows, and preferred vendors. To minimize the risk frequently associated with outsourcing to external service providers, the  Science Exchange guarantee ensures complete protection of data, assets and performance of agreed-upon services, all backed by a best-in-class, SOC 2-compliant information technology security infrastructure. Science Exchange’s ISO 9001-certified quality assurance system and dedicated regulatory compliance team also support regulated work.