Covance and Pathoquest Establish Exclusive Collaboration to Provide Next-Generation Sequencing-Based Biosafety Assessments



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Collaboration provides high-quality solution to detect viral contamination in biologics

Princeton, N.J. and Paris, November 05, 2013 - Covance Inc. (NYSE: CVD), one of the world's largest and most comprehensive drug development companies, and Pathoquest, a pioneer in the field of pathogen detection, today announced an exclusive agreement to collaborate in providing next-generation sequencing (NGS) based biosafety assessments. This innovative biosafety testing approach, combined with Covance's regulatory expertise, will provide a flexible testing solution to all biotherapeutic clients and make biologic medicines safer.

This NGS-based platform can detect and identify viral contaminants within biologic compounds, such as monoclonal antibodies or vaccines, throughout the entire lifecycle of the product. Since viral contamination poses a significant potential safety risk to patients, regulatory agencies are increasingly focusing on the use of advanced analytical technologies like NGS for detection of viral contaminants.

"This collaboration will provide Covance clients with a high-quality solution to the critical problem of viral contamination of biologics during development and in released product," said Raymond Kaiser, Ph.D. and Global Vice President of BioPharmaceutical Chemistry, Manufacturing and Control (CMC) Solutions for Covance. "As a cutting-edge company in the field of NGS-based virus identification, Pathoquest's capability dovetails perfectly with our CMC analytical solutions to provide our clients access to the latest technology and patients with safer medications."

"Covance's global footprint and extensive experience in BioCMC development, together with their established in-house biosafety testing capabilities, offer perfect synergies to help clients access our NGS-based adventitious assay globally. In an evolving regulatory environment, we anticipate that NGS will soon become the standard approach in biosafety assessment, and our technology helps clients meet that standard now and well into the future," said Luc Boblet, Ph.D., Co-Founder and CEO of Pathoquest.

With several high-profile instances of viral contamination of commercially released biologic drugs detected by NGS, the industry is increasingly adopting the technology. The NGS solution offered by Covance and Pathoquest overcomes the primary limitation of traditional approaches that only identify a predefined, short list of viruses. In contrast, this new solution provides a universal test for identifying any virus in a single, comprehensive analysis that minimizes false negatives.

Covance and Pathoquest will provide clients with a wide range of options for adventitious virus identification, including a rapid detection protocol for the critical evaluation of major issues within production processes and a more comprehensive approach for development and characterization of cell banks and biological production systems. For small, emerging and virtual biotech companies, which represent a growing and valued segment of Covance's client base, this solution allows them to access state-of-the-art technology early in the development process to increase the value and safety profile of their molecule.

About Pathoquest
Spun out of the Pasteur Institute and l'ENVA, Pathoquest is a new generation Molecular Diagnostics company that offers a game changing approach in the field of the diagnostic of infectious diseases. Developing disruptive approaches combining sample prep technology and cloud-based bioinformatics, Pathoquest is committed to achieving the first clinical demonstration of a NGS-SaaS based diagnostic assay through main indications both in US and EU. Ultimately, Pathoquest aims to be one of the first e-healthcare companies offering essential non-biased diagnostic approaches for clinicians to prescribe personalized medicine. For more information regarding Pathoquest's capabilities and expertise, visit www.pathoquest.com

About Covance Inc.
Covance, with headquarters in Princeton, New Jersey, is one of the world's largest and most comprehensive drug development services companies with annual revenues greater than $2.2 billion and more than 12,000 employees located in over 60 countries.  Information on Covance's products and services, recent press releases, and SEC filings can be obtained through its website at www.covance.com.

Forward-Looking Statements
Statements contained in this press release, which are not historical facts, are forward-looking statements pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.  All such forward-looking statements are based largely on management's expectations and are subject to and qualified by risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such statements.  These risks and uncertainties include, without limitation, factors described in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission including its Annual Report on Form 10-K and Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q.  The Company undertakes no duty to update any forward-looking statement to conform the statement to actual results or changes in the Company's expectations.

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