This Report may contain "forward-looking statements," within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and/or Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. Those statements may include, but are not limited to, discussions regarding our intent, belief or current expectations with respect to (i) our strategic plans; (ii) our future profitability, liquidity and capital resources; (iii) our capital requirements; (iv) industry trends affecting our financial condition or results of operations; (v) our sales or marketing plans; or (vi) our growth strategy. Investors in our common shares are cautioned that reliance on any forward-looking statement involves risks and uncertainties, including the risk factors contained beginning on page 13 of the Report. Although we believe that the assumptions on which the forward-looking statements contained herein are based are reasonable, any of those assumptions could fail to project actual events and, as a result, the forward-looking statements based upon those assumptions could prove to be significantly different from actual results. In light of the uncertainties inherent in any forward-looking statement, the inclusion of a forward-looking statement herein should not be regarded as a representation by us that our plans and objectives will be achieved. We do not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statement.
(Dollar amounts in thousands, except per share data, unless noted otherwise.)
ITEM 1 - BUSINESS
General
We are an international contract research organization providing drug discovery and development services. Our clients and partners include pharmaceutical, biotechnology, academic and government organizations. We apply innovative technologies and products and a commitment to quality to help clients and partners accelerate the development of safe and effective therapeutics and maximize the returns on their research and development investments. We offer an efficient, variable-cost alternative to our clients' internal product development programs. Outsourcing development work to reduce overhead and speed drug approvals through the Food and Drug Administration ("FDA") is an established alternative to in-house development among pharmaceutical companies. We derive our revenues from sales of our research services and drug development tools, both of which are focused on determining drug safety and efficacy. The Company has been involved in the research of drugs to treat numerous therapeutic areas for over 35 years since its formation as a corporation organized in Indiana in 1974.
We support the preclinical and clinical development needs of researchers and clinicians for small molecule and large biomolecule drug candidates. We believe our scientists have the skills in analytical instrumentation development, chemistry, computer software development, physiology, medicine, analytical chemistry and toxicology to make the services and products we provide increasingly valuable to our current and potential clients. Our principal clients are scientists engaged in analytical chemistry, drug safety evaluation, clinical trials, drug metabolism studies, pharmacokinetics and basic research from small start-up biotechnology companies to many of the largest global pharmaceutical companies. We are committed to bringing scientific expertise, quality and speed to every drug discovery and development program to help our clients develop safe and effective products.
Industry Overview
Drug discovery and development is the process of creating drugs for the treatment of human disease. The drug discovery process aims to identify potential drug candidates, while the drug development process involves the testing of these drug candidates in animals and humans to meet regulatory requirements. Discovering and developing new drugs is an extremely expensive, complex, high-risk and time-consuming process. Multiple industry sources estimate the fully capitalized cost of developing and commercializing a new pharmaceutical product ranges from $800 million to over $1 billion. In addition, it generally takes between 10 and 15 years to develop a new prescription drug and obtain approval to market it in the United States.
The drug development services industry provides independent product development services to pharmaceutical, biotechnology companies, and government organizations. This industry has evolved from providing limited clinical trial services in the 1970s to a full-service industry today characterized by broader relationships with clients and by service offerings that encompass the entire drug development process, including preclinical evaluations, study design, clinical trial management, data collection, biostatistical analyses, regulatory consulting, clinical laboratory and diagnostic services, pre- and post-approval safety analysis, product registration and post-approval support.
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Over the past 25 years, technological advances, as well as the emergence of the biotechnology industry, have dramatically changed the drug discovery process. New and improved technologies have evolved such as ultra high-throughput screening, new in vitro and in vivo preclinical profiling techniques and the gene-based drug research commonly referred to as genomics. The objective of these innovations is to find more drug targets and to screen chemical compounds against targets much more quickly, with literally millions of compounds possible. This process is expected to produce many more molecules having the ability to affect biological activity. These molecules then need to be tested quickly and economically to determine their viability as potentially safe and effective drug candidates.
Trends Affecting the Drug Discovery and Development Industry
Our services and products are marketed globally to pharmaceutical, medical research and biotech companies and institutions engaged in drug research and development. The research services industry is highly fragmented among many niche vendors led by a small number of larger companies; the latter offer an ever-growing portfolio of start-to-finish pharmaceutical development services. Our products are also marketed to academic and governmental institutions. Our services and products may have distinctly different clients (often separate divisions in a single large pharmaceutical company) and requirements. We believe that all clients are facing increased pressure to outsource facets of their research and development activities and that the following factors will increase client outsourcing:
Accelerated Drug Development
Clients continue to demand faster, more efficient, more selective development of an increasing pool of drug candidates. Consequently, our clients require fast, high-quality service in order to make well-informed decisions to quickly exclude poor candidates and speed development of successful ones. The need for additional development capacity to exploit more opportunities, accelerate development, extend market exclusivity and increase profitability drives the demand for outsourced services.
Increase in Potential New Drug Candidates
While research and development spending and the number of drug candidates are increasing, the time and cost required to develop a new drug candidate also have increased. Many pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies do not have sufficient internal resources to pursue development of all of these new drug candidates on their own. Consequently, these companies are looking to the drug discovery and development services industry for cost-effective, innovative and rapid means of developing new drugs.
Cost Pressures of Introducing New Drugs
Market forces, healthcare reform and other governmental initiatives place significant pressures on pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies to reduce drug prices. In addition, increased competition as a result of patent expiration, market acceptance of generic drugs, and governmental and privately managed care organization efforts to reduce healthcare costs have added to drug pricing pressures. The industry is responding by consolidating, streamlining operations, decentralizing internal discovery and development processes, and minimizing fixed costs. In addition, increased pressures to differentiate products and justify drug pricing are resulting in an increased focus on healthcare economics, safety monitoring and commercialization services. Moreover, pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies are attempting to increase the speed and efficiency of internal new drug discovery and development processes.
Patent Expiration
As exclusivity ends with patent expiry, drug companies defend their proprietary positions against generic competition with various patent extension strategies. Both the drug company creating these extensions and the generic competitors should provide additional opportunities for us.
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Alliances
Strategic alliances allow pharmaceutical companies to share research know-how and to develop and market new drugs faster in more diverse, global markets. We believe that such alliances will lead to a greater number of potential drugs in testing, many under study by small companies lacking broad technical resources. Those small companies can add shareholder value by further developing new products through outsourcing, reducing risk for potential allies. Clients seek realistic business partnerships with their service provider in an effort to ensure that costs are controlled as their development programs progress. We have long-standing business relationships with many pharmaceutical companies and continue to offer flexible services and adapt to our client’s requirements.
Mergers and Acquisitions
Consolidation in the pharmaceutical industry is commonplace. As firms blend personnel, resources and business activities, we believe they will continue to streamline operations and minimize staffing, which may lead to more outsourcing. Consolidation may result in a disruption in the progress of drug development programs as merging companies rationalize their respective drug development pipelines.
Biotechnology Industry and Virtual Drug Company Growth
The U.S. biotechnology industry has grown rapidly over the last decade and has emerged as a key client segment for the drug discovery and development services industry. In recent years, this industry has generated significant numbers of new drug candidates that will require development and regulatory approval. Many biotechnology drug developers do not have in-house resources to conduct development. Many new companies choose only to carry a product to a developed stage sufficient to attract a partner who will manufacture and market the drug. Because of the time and cost involved, these companies rely heavily on CROs to conduct research for their drug candidates.
Unique Technical Expertise
The increasing complexity of new drugs requires highly specialized, innovative, solution-driven research not available in all client labs. We believe that this need for unique technical expertise will increasingly lead to outsourcing of research activity.
Data Management and Quality Expertise
Our clients and the FDA require more data, greater access to that data, consistent and auditable management of that data, and greater security and control of that data. We have made significant investments in software throughout our contract services groups to optimize efficiency and ensure compliance with FDA regulations and market expectations.
Changes in the Regulatory Environment
The drug discovery and development process is heavily regulated by the FDA and its Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. Recent product safety concerns, increases in drug and general healthcare costs and the emergence of importation issues have placed the FDA and other regulatory agencies under increased scrutiny. The war on terror, the risk of global vaccine shortages and the threat of new potential pandemics have elevated the FDA’s focus on research in the areas of bioterrorism and vaccine development. As a result of these and other events, drug safety, cost and availability are under intense monitoring and review by Congress, the FDA and other government agencies. In 2007, primarily in response to the FDA’s handling of postmarket data and recent drug safety concerns, the FDA Act was signed into law. In addition to reauthorizing and amending various provisions that were scheduled to expire, this Act provided the FDA with new regulatory authority to require drug sponsors to run post-approval studies and clinical trials and develop and implement risk evaluation and mitigation strategies. It is also likely that additional legislation will be passed that will impact the FDA and drug development and approval process in the United States. The FDA Act, continued drug safety issues and future legislation could have a lasting and pronounced impact on the drug discovery and development industry.