CiToxLAB announces the appointment of Dr. Philippe Ancian as Senior Director of Biomarkers

This appointment will allow him to drive developments at CiToxLAB’s European and North American sites in the area of preclinical and clinical biomarkers, which is currently experiencing strong growth

CiToxLAB, a leading CRO for non-clinical research, today announces that it has hired Dr. Philippe Ancian as Senior Director of Biomarkers for the group. Philippe has fostered a 20-year career in the development of biomarkers and specialized genomics and proteomics platforms.

Philippe Ancian has a PhD in molecular and cellular biology. He was Head of Biomarkers at Laboratoires Galderma, then Director of Research and Development for the pharma business unit at Protéus before joining CiT in 2005 to develop the functional genomics platform at the Evreux site (France). He then moved to Transgène in 2010 as Senior Director of the Vectorology and Biomarkers departments, to work on strategy definition and to conduct follow-ups on biomarker and immunomonitoring studies in relation to clinical trials from phases I to III.

Since the acquisition of LAB-Research Group by CiT in 2011, CiToxLAB has invested heavily in the development of a suite of platforms for biomarkers analysis. These include functional genomics, flow cytometry immunophenotyping, mass spectrometry, protein and peptide analysis using multiplex techniques, immunohistochemistry and more recently NGS (Next Generation Sequencing).

CiToxLAB is now a leading player in Europe, having extended its range of services to preclinical and clinical biological samples in the field of transcriptomics and genomics. CiToxLAB experts have analyzed nearly 52,000 Affymetrix chips since 2010.

“I am particularly pleased that Philippe has decided to come back to CiToxLAB after working here between 2005 and 2009. By accelerating its international expansion, the company has more than doubled in size since then.” said Jean-François Le Bigot, Chairman and CEO of the CiToxLAB group. “Philippe will be tasked with developing our biomarkers business, an area where our clients’ needs are growing strongly. We believe that the combination of our platforms, operating in the quality environment of a preclinical CRO (GLP), allied with our biobanking and traceability (LIMS) capabilities, needed for high throughput sample management, provide an opportunity to develop these areas of our business at preclinical and clinical stages; with both existing clients, new companies and institutional clients.”

“Over time, we plan to offer most of the activities associated with biomarkers not just in Europe from our Evreux and Saint-Nazaire (Atlanbio) sites, but also in North America, from our site in Montreal. Therefore, this is a real strategic development and we are confident that Philippe’s scientific, organizational and commercial skills will help him fulfill this mandate,” said Dr Le Bigot.

About CiToxLAB
With five facilities located in France (Evreux, Saint-Nazaire), Canada (Montreal), Denmark (Copenhagen) and Hungary (Veszprem), the CiToxLAB group offers a comprehensive range of preclinical services to meet the needs of pharmaceutical, biotechnology and chemical companies worldwide.

CiToxLAB carries out studies in general and reproductive toxicology, carcinogenicity, immunology, safety pharmacology, DMPK and bioanalysis. The group has unique expertise in areas such as toxicology and reprotoxicology in NHPs and minipigs, inhalation toxicology, radiation studies and environmental studies (ecotoxicology and those related to REACH regulations).

Atlanbio (Saint-Nazaire, France) joined the group to offer CiToxLAB extensive services in pre-clinical and clinical bioanalysis and biomarkers. A partnership with Stemina (Madison, USA) allows the group to offer screening services using human embryonic stem cell models.

Created in 2011 through the merger of CIT and LAB-Research, CiToxLAB group has more than 850 employees working on the five sites representing 60,000 sq meters of state-of-the-art facilities.

The company has a world-class team of top-level management in scientific, financial and business activities.