Four companies—Conversant Bio, Huntsville, Ala; Discovery Life Sciences, Los Osos, Calif; Folio Bio, Columbus, Oh; and Phylogeny, Powell, Oh—have recently announced that they have merged under the name Discovery Life Sciences to create a global market leader in biospecimen analysis and procurement for the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and diagnostics industries.
The new company will leverage the scientific expertise and consulting services of its constituent organizations, combined with a repository of more than 10 million research-quality biospecimens—all available and processed for analysis—to accelerate the discovery, research, and development of novel biomarkers, drug candidates, and diagnostics.
Water Street Healthcare Partners, a strategic investor focused exclusively on the healthcare industry, facilitated the merger and invested in the company.
Glenn Bilawsky, Discovery Life Sciences.
“We’ve created an organization to provide researchers with significant added value through our consultative SmartSourcing model, which creates intelligent partnerships to overcome research problems and accelerate progress, saving both time and money,” says Glenn Bilawsky, Discovery’s CEO. “We retain the world’s most diverse base of high-quality biospecimens and the global logistical systems to acquire, process, biostore, and ship them most efficiently, with adherence to all local and international laws.”
With particular emphases in cardiology; neurology; oncology; and autoimmune, infectious, and inflammatory diseases, the newly combined company’s catalog includes normal-, suspect-, and disease-state specimens comprising rare diseases as well as racially and ethnically diverse exemplars.
Discovery obtains biosamples through its Discovery Partners, a global, integrated network of more than 165 clinical sources in 25 countries on six continents. Due to these clinical partners, Discovery is unmatched in its ability to recruit the most diverse patient populations and obtain the highest quality of ethically obtained clinical research specimens.
Discovery can study specimens on all research and diagnostic platforms. The company is committed to quality and integrity as an ISO 9001-certified company with labs certified under the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments of 1988, stringent institutional review board and ethics committee compliance, and all required EU approvals and certifications. Navigating the latest personal data protection regulations, both in the United States and internationally, is a core competency.
For further information, visit Discovery Life Sciences.
I would like to purchase multiple human whole blood biospecimens encompassing a variety of genetic variants corresponding to Cystic Fibrosis patients and/or carriers.