Dr. Thomas VanCott, President and CEO of ABL, Inc. comments on the strategic agreement with BioQual, Inc. and ABL’s vision for growth:

We are very excited at the opportunity to work with BioQual to provide clients with a more integrated and streamlined preclinical solution. Through this partnership, ABL will be able to offer enhanced in vivo capabilities, such as access to Animal Biosafety Level 3 (ABSL3) facilities, select agent studies and expanded small animal models that are fully integrated with our exceptional laboratory in vitro services and program management functions.

Under this agreement, ABL’s current in vivo facility and associated operations will be owned and managed by BioQual, and subcontracted by ABL. This partnership will enable ABL to further expand and enhance our own in vitro laboratory capabilities in support of preclinical studies. ABL will continue to provide access to our highly experienced scientific staff and disciplined project management oversight. The combination of both companies’ expertise and state-of-the-art facilities will afford our clients unparalleled scientific know-how, preclinical study design and execution through a single-sourced contact.

Within ABL’s CRO portfolio, on-going service enhancements include Good Clinical Laboratory Practice (GCLP) immunomonitoring in an expanded laboratory space at our current facility. Our many years of experience evaluating immunological responses elicited by vaccines and immunotherapeutics, using such assays as ELISpot, ELISA, Luminex and flow cytometry, can now be harnessed to support client programs as they transition from the preclinical arena to human clinical trials. Molecular methodologies and mucosal and humoral immunology are also being expanded to complement current preclinical laboratory technologies. Recently added capabilities include biolayer interferometry to measure protein binding affinity and kinetics, and B cell ELISpot and FACS to better characterize responses from different B cell populations. ABL’s scientists are also applying these immunological tools to help understand and modulate immunosenescence during cancer progression.

In addition, ABL is continuing to expand our cGMP contract manufacturing operations, most notably in analytical method development/QC and establishing a large-scale transient transfection platform to more rapidly and cost-effectively produce and down-select candidates for clinical testing. ABL has also developed upstream and downstream processes for protein-, virus- and VLP-based medical countermeasure (MCM) programs. These manufacturing initiatives, as well as the added offering of ABSL3 animal services in partnership with BioQual, will allow ABL to provide a significant, integrated MCM capability directed through a single service provider.

For over 50 years, ABL has provided our government and commercial partners with unparalleled product development support through the design and execution of preclinical studies evaluating the safety and efficacy of novel vaccines and therapies. Through our new partnership with BioQual and with investments in strategic expansion, we aim to further strengthen our ability to advance your product through clinical evaluation.