CiToxLAB, a preclinical CROs, has announced the acquisition of AccelLAB, a Canadian CRO specialized in the preclinical assessment of new medical devices. Through this acquisition, CiToxLAB Group reinforces its position in the non-clinical CRO arena and enlarges its services portfolio to medical devices, a fast growing area which offers large synergies with drug development, the CiToxLAB’s core business.

AccelLAB was founded in 2004 by Dr. Guy Leclerc, an Interventional Cardiologist who headed the department of Cardiology and Cardiac Surgery of the Centre Hospitalier de l’Université de Montreal (CHUM). As an interventional cardiologist practitioner, Guy Leclerc has been a pioneer in applying what we call today translational research in the field of medical devices, helping client companies in the development of new cardiac stents, valves, pacemakers, etc. The services were more recently enlarged to other areas such as orthopedic, ENT (Ear, Nose and Throat) and dermatology specialties.

AccelLAB has a staff of around 100 people and the facilities include operating rooms, in particular for cardiac catheterization, state-of-the-art laboratories, a large vivarium, a medical imaging department (scanning and MRI) and clinical pathology and histopathology laboratories.

Dr. Jean-François Le Bigot, chairman and CEO of CiToxLAB Group, said, “We identified AccelLAB as a strategic target to make our group a more global services player in the Life Sciences Services arena. Within CiToxLAB Group, AccelLAB allows the convergence process between the development of new drugs and medical devices which represents a new offer to the customers in particular in the cardiovascular, orthopedic fields and more generally in the regenerative medicine. We have been convinced by the high scientific approaches of AccelLAB, the depth of itsmethods and technologies combined with strict regulatory compliance but also, by the personality of the founder Guy Leclerc who is so committed himself to the progress in translational research with a strong entrepreneurship spirit.”

Following this acquisition, Dr. Guy Leclerc remains the managing director of AccelLAB. CiToxLAB continues its growth strategy and becomes a group with more than 1.000 staff in four countries (France, Canada, Hungary and Denmark) and revenues upper to €100 million realized for more than a third in North America.