Quintiles Acquires Internationally Renowned Minerva Medical

Quintiles Transnational (Research Triangle Park, NC) announced the acquisition of Minerva Medical plc, a Scotland-based clinical research organization with an international reputation for patient recruitment and management of large primary-care clinical trials involving chronic diseases through its strong network of physician relationships.

Based in Glasgow, Scotland, and with offices in Ireland and the Netherlands, Minerva works in close concert with leading academics and European investigator sites. This creates a powerful feedback loop for the generation of new, academically grounded proposals for clinical trials, and innovative protocol design and implementation for projects of high scientific and medical value.

In particular, Minerva has significant expertise in lipid and cardiovascular products and close working relationships with a network of distinguished academic opinion leaders in Cork, Ireland, Leiden, the Netherlands, and Glasgow, including Professor Jim Shepherd of the University of Glasgow, a pre-eminent expert in cardiovascular disease.

Minerva was responsible for the recruitment and follow-up of participants in the landmark West of Scotland Coronary Prevention Study (WOSCOPS). This study, reported in the New England Journal of Medicine, was the first to demonstrate the benefit of lowering cholesterol in patients with no history of heart disease. Minerva screened approximately 100,000 patients in 90 primary care sites over 20 months in order to enroll the 6,595 patients appropriate for this clinical study.

Quintiles acquired Minerva in exchange for Quintiles stock in a pooling of interests transaction that is expected to be neutral to Quintiles' earnings per share. Minerva will continue to operate under its own name as a specialty business unit of the Quintiles Product Development group.

Quintiles Transnational Corp. Phone: 919-998-2000, or Europe, +44-162-849-1278.