Tandem Labs has acquired PharmaKD, a Boston, MA-based division of Linden Technologies. Tandem will retain key personnel, intellectual property portfolios, proprietary informatics, scientific instruments, and 7,000-sq.-ft. of operational space from PharmaKD, which it will rename Tandem Labs – New England. Tandem will operate three facilities within the U.S.: Salt Lake City, New Jersey, and New England. Tandem’s expanded services will include metabolite profiling, identification, and quantitation; biomarker discovery and screening; protein-binding assays; and discovery bioanalytical support services.

With the acquisition, Tandem Labs will obtain proprietary informatics that can reduce the difficulty, complexity, and time-consuming nature of developing and launching a drug to market, according to the company. DMDiscovery is an innovative drug metabolism technology that increases the productivity of drug metabolite identification and quantitation. MarkerScan is a biomarker discovery and screening process that efficiently identifies potential biomarkers that can be used to increase the understanding of disease, diagnosis, and predictive models as well as drug compound safety, efficacy, and side-effect profiles.

“As the costs increase yearly for developing and launching a new drug, Tandem Labs has vigorously investigated new technologies and services that will allow our clients to safely and cost-effectively bring new medicines to market,” said Dr. Denis Lin, president and chief executive officer of Tandem Labs. “PharmaKD has strong intellectual property portfolios that improve pharmaceutical research productivity, reduce costs, and increase the success rate of drug candidates. These portfolios coupled with Tandem’s long-standing, client-centric, and innovative bioanalytical services will provide our clients with a more complete laboratory menu and a higher likelihood of success when investigating new chemical entities.”

Dr. Lily Li, president of PharmaKD and the newly appointed laboratory director of Tandem Labs-New England added, “We are extremely pleased to merge with an innovative and growing company such as Tandem Labs. We believe Tandem Labs has the services, customer focus, and dedicated sales force needed for future expansion in the competitive pharmaceutical-support industry.”

As part of this acquisition, Tandem Labs has named Dr. James Jersey as vice president and general manager of Tandem Labs – New England. Mr. Jersey has 15 years of business experience, particularly in the areas of marketing and business development, operational and technical management, and the launch of new business entities. From 1996 to 2004, Dr. Jersey founded and managed the rapid growth of a leading contract, fee-for-service bioanalytical services division within Primedica Corp., which was acquired by Charles River Laboratories in March 2001. While at Charles River Labs, he established and served as president of a new fee-for-service contract proteomic research services company in 2003. He also served as founder, chief technical officer, and senior scientist of the Bioanalytical Division within Triangle Laboratories as well as the principal investigator within the Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering at the School of Public Health at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill