ICON has acquired Healthcare Discoveries, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Catalyst Pharma Group, Inc., for $12 million in cash, and if certain performance milestones are achieved in 2008, a further consideration of as much as $10 million. Healthcare Discoveries operate an 85-bed clinical pharmacology unit in San Antonio, TX and have experience with early phase development programs.
   
“The acquisition of Healthcare Discoveries is an important step for ICON,” commented ICON chief executive officer, Peter Gray. “It gives us a clinical pharmacology platform in the United States to complement our existing European Phase I operations. As well as gaining an outstanding facility, we are bringing into ICON an experienced team that has an excellent market reputation”
   
Healthcare Discoveries will become part of a comprehensive early phase development portfolio within the ICON Development Solutions division, which includes an 80-bed clinical pharmacology unit based in Manchester, England. Dr. Thomas Frey, president of this division, added, “The investment in Healthcare Discoveries will enable us to meet the growing demand for highly scientific first-in-human and full spectrum of clinical pharmacology studies that are a critical part of the drug development process. We look forward to integrating these additional capabilities into our broad drug development service portfolio.”
   
Dr. Richard Anthony, chief executive officer of Catalyst Pharma Group commented, “We are delighted that Healthcare Discoveries will become part of the ICON group. Catalyst has worked with Dr. Dennis Ruff, president of Healthcare Discoveries, for the past four years to build a reputation for excellence in Phase I research.” Dr. Anthony added, “We believe ICON’s early phase development experience, focus on quality and business culture is an ideal fit with Healthcare Discoveries. Catalyst looks forward to continuing to work with Healthcare Discoveries in the future.”