DETROIT ? Asterand, which supplies human tissues for drug discovery research to more than 150 customers worldwide, has signed an exclusive Japan marketing agreement with Mutsui, Japan?s second largest trading company. The deal will guarantee Asterand several million dollars worth of business over the next few years.
The announcement came from Asterand CEO Randal Charlton Tuesday during the first birthday party for Wayne State University?s TechTown, Detroit?s only research and technology park. Charlton also announced that Asterand also has opened a European sales office in the United Kingdom near Cambridge.
Charlton, in an interview, said he and several Asterand executives will fly to Tokyo next week, or the week after, to kick off the new Japanese sales and marketing plan.
The twin sales efforts in Europe and Japan will have a direct impact on Asterand?s staff in TechTown. Charlton said more staff will be needed in Detroit to ?manufacture?? the new samples needed for sale overseas. The increased staff will mean Asterand will lease more space at the TechOne Building. Asterand already leases the entire fifth floor. Talks are underway with TechTown CEO Howard Bell to lease a portion of the now unoccupied fourth floor.
But much of the fourth floor will be leased to the National Institute of Health, which will create a secure repository for drugs that are going through clinical trials as part of the FDA certification process, he said. No announcement has been made yet by the NIH.
Asterand?s European initiative calls for new laboratories to be developed to provide a full range of human tissue services and, importantly, the company will expand the supplies of samples that must be delivered within a tight time frame for experiments to be effective. The European division of Asterand will be led by Dr Julian Beesley.
?We already have a large and growing number of research partners in Europe,?? Charlton said. ?However we believe the market is underserved by research service companies like ours. We provide a critical service. Virtually all of the world?s leading pharmaceutical companies have major research facilities in one or more European countries. Our new presence there will allow us to provide them with a better research service in the same time zone.?
