INDIANAPOLIS, Feb. 26 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Senior executives from Eli Lilly and Company and Covance Inc. announced Friday that the first year of their landmark alliance has been a win-win for both companies, enabling Lilly to expedite the flow of innovation within its pipeline in order to provide improved outcomes for individual patients.
Executives from both companies announced key milestones of their first-year partnership as part of an Indiana Life Sciences Collaboration Conference Series titled “Effective Collaboration: A Study in Three Acts,” produced by the Indiana University Kelley School of Business and its Center for the Business of Life Sciences in collaboration with the event hosts Barnes & Thornburg LLP. Successes from the first year included significant advances in growing the Greenfield site, helping speed innovation to patients, and driving down the cost of drug development:
“These milestones demonstrate that this strategic alliance is already a win-win for both Covance and Lilly,” said Covance CEO Joe Herring. “In the first year, we’ve proven that we can help accelerate drug development timelines and improve efficiencies, enabling Lilly to focus on its core competencies in delivering better patient outcomes over the longer-term. The positive, collaborative working relationships between Lilly and Covance employees have been equally impressive.”
“The passion at Lilly and Covance for helping patients is evident,” remarked Andrew Dahlem, Ph.D, vice president Lilly Research Laboratories (LRL) Operations/ LRL Europe. “With the Lilly/Covance model, everyone on the team understands the end goal and their role in it, and because of this, has a greater sense of urgency and personal pride in advancing the molecule to the next stage.”
Covance will continue to invest in its Greenfield site, in order to grow it into a world-class research organization that could service the drug development needs of all pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies.
“This strategic alliance has proven it’s a win for Lilly in terms of advancing of pipeline, in terms of job opportunities for Lilly employees and for the state of Indiana, with Covance continuing to grow its business. I also see it as a win for patients - those who will benefit from new and better treatments achieved from the speed this alliance is generating and through the cost reductions Lilly is achieving,” said Bart Peterson, Lilly senior vice president corporate affairs and communications.
Lilly and Covance entered into a long-term strategic alliance in August 2008, in which Covance acquired Lilly’s preclinical research facility in Greenfield, Ind. for $50 million. As part of the agreement, Covance hired 264 former Lilly employees, and Lilly committed to providing $1.6 billion in work to Covance over 10 years for a broad range of drug development services. Covance also assumed responsibility for all of Lilly’s toxicology testing and discovery support activities at Greenfield.
About Covance
Covance, with headquarters in Princeton, New Jersey, is one of the world’s largest and most comprehensive drug development services companies with annual revenues greater than $1.8 billion, global operations in more than 25 countries, and more than 10,000 employees worldwide. Information on Covance’s products and services, recent press releases, and SEC filings can be obtained through its website at http://www.covance.com/.
About Eli Lilly and Company
Lilly, a leading innovation-driven corporation, is developing a growing portfolio of pharmaceutical products by applying the latest research from its own worldwide laboratories and from collaborations with eminent scientific organizations. Headquartered in Indianapolis, Ind., Lilly provides answers - through medicines and information - for some of the world’s most urgent medical needs. Additional information about Lilly is available at www.lilly.com.
C-LLY
CONTACT: Michele Helies of Covance Inc., +1-609-452-4787,
michele.helies@covance.com; or Christine Van Marter of Lilly Research
Laboratories, +1-317-651-1473, vanmarterch@lilly.com
Web site: http://www.covance.com/
