Hvivo’s consultancy division Venn lands €3.2m pharma contract

17 Jan 2023

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The company will provide consultancy and programming services on a number of drug development programmes.

Venn Life Sciences, the consultancy services division of Hvivo, has secured a two-year contract with a pharmaceutical client worth €3.2m.

A consultancy team based in the Netherlands will provide drug test consultancy and programming services to this global client on a number of drug development programmes.

Venn will help this client study the absorption, distribution and excretion of their drugs within the body. Studying a drug’s journey through the body is known as pharmacokinetics (PK)

Venn offers various services to help companies develop drugs, such as clinical trial design and execution services. The consultancy company said it supports clients from early planning to the final stages of drug development.

Venn said its 30 experts provide services for various trials and therapeutic areas, such as traditional phase I trials and more complex trials such as oncology and ATMP (advanced therapy medicinal product).

The company is the consultation arm of Hvivo, which is known for its human challenge trial model that it uses to test drugs for its clients.

Hvivo CEO Yamin ‘Mo’ Khan said the consultancy work included in this two-year contract highlights “the continued expansion of our pharmacokinetic and programming services”.

“Venn’s outstanding expertise and reputation in the industry over the past 25 years makes them a go-to partner,” Khan said.

Venn’s head of clinical development Dr Katsuhiro Mihara said the latest contract is an example of Venn’s ability to “deliver on long term PK and programming projects”.

“We have worked closely with Hvivo to identify ways to leverage this strong client base, to drive both upselling and cross-selling opportunities, and find even greater synergies between the two integrated clinical services businesses,” Mihara said.

Hvivo was originally the name of Open Orphan’s subsidiary which specialised in human challenge trials. The company announced plans to rebrand to Hvivo last September in order to reflect its core human challenge and early clinical services business.

Earlier this month, the company confirmed it signed a £5.2m contract with a biotech headquartered in the Asia-Pacific region, which was the first it had signed in that region in more than a decade.

Last August, Hvivo signed a £10.4m contract with a major global pharmaceutical company to test a potential flu treatment.

Earlier in 2022, Hvivo said it was developing the world’s first human challenge model involving the Omicron variant of Covid-19. This will be used to test the efficacy of an oral vaccine candidate from biotech company Vaxart.

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Leigh Mc Gowran is a journalist with Silicon Republic

editorial@siliconrepublic.com