Clinical Data's Cogenics Division Consolidates North Carolina Genomic Labs and Operations

Clinical Data, Inc. has announced that the Company has completed a key step in the consolidation of its North Carolina based genomic labs and offices it acquired as part of the Genaissance and Icoria acquisitions, respectively.

As part of this consolidation, Icoria staff and operations previously located in the Company's Research Triangle Park (RTP) facility have been relocated to a Cogenics (formally Genaissance) facility located in Morrisville, North Carolina.

The RTP facility was leased space, and the Company has finalized a separation agreement and agreed on a financial settlement to eliminate the ongoing costs associated with this lease.

The consolidation move is directly in keeping with the Company's financial and operational objectives to reduce cost and effectively integrate the Cogenics business into the full complement of genomic and genetic testing products and services desired by the division's constituents.

Clinical Data notes that the consolidation of the two North Carolina sites will lead to an immediate reduction in operating costs while improving efficiency and throughput of DNA and RNA based services by leveraging cumulative assets.

The localization of both DNA and RNA related services including nucleic acid extraction, genotyping, gene expression, and biobanking as well as its metabolomics program provides clients with a streamlined path to sample analysis.

In addition, the integration of informatics and IT infrastructure will lead to improvements in production efficiencies including entry, tracking, analysis, and delivery of data while further reducing cost.

Commenting on the significant achievement, Drew Fromkin, Clinical Data's President and CEO, said, "We are pleased to announce progress in our ongoing consolidation of the Cogenics division assets."

"The integration of our North Carolina facilities into one operation under a single roof simultaneously drives costs lower while generating additional benefits for customers."

"This move also assists with the creation of a combined, cohesive, service-oriented team of seasoned professionals dedicated to addressing client requirements."

"With this move, we are now able to operate in RNA and DNA services as a single operation and functional group leveraging cross-trained resources to provide a wide range of services."

"The North Carolina consolidation represents one of a number of important steps in achieving cost reductions, improvements in efficiency, and improved integration of service delivery."

"We have been working aggressively and continuously to take cost out of the division while enhancing resources for our most profitable services, and we will continue to update shareholders on similar activities as developments warrant."

Robert Bondaryk, General Manager and Unit Head of the Cogenics Division, said, "This action marks another important step in the continuing evolution of our efficient delivery of a complete offering of molecular biology and pharmacogenomics services for our clients globally under the Cogenics brand."

"The move establishes our Morrisville site as a center of excellence for nucleic acid extraction, genotyping, microarray work on both the Affymetrix and Agilent platforms, biobanking and related services for both research and FDA regulated environments, and it complements our sequencing, qPCR, genetic stability testing and related services provided by our Cogenics facilities in Texas, Connecticut, the UK and France."

Bondaryk continued, "As a service provider to sister division PGxHealth, Cogenics also will be hosting the production of the Warfarin test now in development by PGxHealth in the CLIA-certified facility at our Morrisville site complementing the current production of PGxHealth's FAMILION^® test in Cogenics' CLIA-certified facility at our Connecticut site."