ICON-PLC and University College Dublin Launch Innovative Graduate Certificate in Clinical Research

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Dublin, Ireland, 17th June, 2013 – ICON plc, (NASDAQ: ICLR) a global provider of outsourced development services to the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device industries, and the University College Dublin (UCD) School of Medicine & Medical Science today announced the launch of an innovative graduate certificate in clinical research that will enhance the quality of graduate training in clinical research and increase the pool of talent available to ICON to support their clients drug development programmes.

Available to life science graduates from September 2013, the 12-week programme combines industry-specific education and training with a parallel 12 week clinical-based internship in the UCD Clinical Research Centre at Dublin’s St Vincent’s and Mater Misericordiae University Hospitals. Education modules will include clinical trial management, data and project management, clinical research governance and ethics, and the clinical trial of the future.

Commenting on the launch, ICON’s CEO, Ciaran Murray, said: “ICON is a global leader in clinical research with over 10,000 employees worldwide and we are delighted to be collaborating with the UCD School of Medicine on this uniquely tailored programme to ensure that we develop the talent to support our future growth.”

Professor Patrick Murray, Dean of Medicine & Head, School of Medicine & Medical Science welcomed the collaboration with ICON noting: “this initiative further demonstrates the University’s growing links with industry. As Ireland’s leading academic clinical research facility, the UCD Clinical Research Centre has supported increasing numbers of investigator-led and industry-sponsored studies over the past six years. With more than 25,000 study-related patient contacts, the benefits to our patients are evident. Significant benefits to Ireland’s economy can also be realised as we train our graduates to conduct clinical and translational research to the highest international standards and prepare them for leadership roles within international clinical research organisations such as ICON.”

ICON formed a strategic partnership with UCD in November 2012 to support a shared vision for transforming research, teaching, training and innovation in the sciences in Ireland and to also strengthen the ties between academic research and industry.

As part of the partnership ICON established the ICON Newman Fellowship in Genomics, a prestigious two-year post-doctoral fellowship based in the UCD School of Medicine and Medical Science and the UCD Complex and Adaptive Systems Laboratory (CASL). The first recipient of the ICON Newman Fellowship in Genomics is Colm J. Ryan who will conduct research into the control of gene expression by inherited variants, focusing on cardiovascular diseases and cancer.

ICON also become a lead benefactor of the new UCD Science Centre, an iconic 67,000 square metre building which will be home to Ireland’s largest science community.

In April 2013, ICON announced the launch of the ICON Business Academy. Developed with the UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School, the ICON Business Academy offers a number of tailored, university-accredited programmes to ICON staff, the first of which is the Certificate in International Business Management which launched in April.

About ICON plc

ICON plc is a global provider of outsourced development services to the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device industries. The Company specialises in the strategic development, management and analysis of programs that support clinical development - from compound selection to Phase I-IV clinical studies. ICON currently has approximately 10,200 employees, operating from 79 locations in 37 countries.

Further information is available at www.iconplc.com

About University College Dublin

UCD is Ireland's largest university with 25,000 students, including 30% of all international students in the country. UCD educates the largest number of science and engineering graduates in Ireland, including over 31% of the science and engineering PhDs in the country, making it the national leader in fourth-level education. UCD has been ranked number one in research funding in Ireland for the last two years. UCD is currently constructing an iconic Science Centre for teaching and research - the largest science capital development project in the history of Irish third-level education. In recent years, UCD has fostered over 250 industry partnerships and is the national leader in technology transfer and university spinouts. Supported by the expertise of NovaUCD - the University's hub for knowledge transfer and commercialisation activities - many of these start-ups have gone on to develop new and game-changing products and services.

Further information is available at: www.ucd.ie; www.ucd.ie/medicine

ICON Media Contact

Genevieve Tuck

Weber Shandwick

Tel: +44 (0)20 7067 0655

gtuck@webershandwick.com

UCD Media Contact

Mark Byrne

Communications Manager

UCD School of Medicine & Medical Science

Tel: +353 1 716 6673

mark.byrne@ucd.ie

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