Cerba Research Forms Strategic Partnership with OWL Metabolomics

Ghent, Belgium; Vizcaya, Spain, March 19, 2019 – Barc Lab and OWL Metabolomics are pleased to announce they have entered into a global strategic partnership combining Barc Lab’s industry leading central lab services with Owl Metabolomics’ world class metabolomics technology. 

This strategic partnership between Barc Lab and Owl Metabolomics will provide a broad range of clinical support solutions for the expanding number of biopharmaceutical companies active in non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) research leveraging cutting-edge, metabolomic technology and expertise. Combining the unique strengths of a major international central laboratory (Barc Lab) with a metabolomics specialty laboratory (OWL) focusing on NASH and liver diseases will create valuable synergies for our customers worldwide. This partnership will support our clients through their quest to find the right therapies for their patients and gain additional insight into the true biological impact of their compounds.

Despite the growing prevalence of NASH, there are currently no approved treatments for the disease beyond liver transplant. The constellation of risk factors for NASH has generated a multitude of targets and there is an obvious need to bring promising treatments through clinical trials and to patients quickly. OWL Metabolomics’ technology allows for the identification of over 1000 small metabolites in a single sample, hence providing a comprehensive picture of the metabolome. This type of next-generation precision metabolomics can yield a thorough assessment of NASH complexity by helping the analysis of metabolic alterations which play a main role in the progression of NASH.

Mario PAPILLON, Barc Lab’s CEO declared: “This partnership is truly a powerful combination and is a natural progression from Barc Lab’s leadership position in NASH research. It is my pleasure to announce that OWL technology platform can now be accessed from Barc Lab. OWL is known for its strength in the metabolomics field, particularly in liver disease, and offers valuable insight into biological systems. This collaboration will allow us to provide our customers with the solutions they need to develop tailored treatments for NASH patients and address this desperate unmet medical need.” 

“We are proud of having formed this exciting new alliance with Barc Lab as a major company milestone for Owl Metabolomics. We are confident that the two companies together will bring a very positive impact to the important field of NASH research and become valued reference service providers for clinical trials in liver disease research”, said Pablo ORTIZ, CEO of Owl Metabolomics.

About Barc Lab

For over 35 years, Barc Lab has provided the pharmaceutical and biotech industry with central lab services both in routine and specialized testing across a wide range of fields including oncology, immunology, genetics, microbiology and clinical pathology. Barc’s laboratories routinely conduct medical clinical testing, thus ensuring that the tests offered are also performed daily for diagnostic purposes, patient stratification, staging and follow-up.

With cutting-edge technologies at their disposal, Barc Lab’s medical and scientific experts are specialists in their fields equipped for delivering more than just testing. At Barc Lab, they act as genuine partners for our customers. We encourage our scientific experts to become integrated into our customers’ R&D processes, hence providing a critical advantage in the increasingly complex setting of clinical trials.

About OWL Metabolomics

OWL is a global metabolomics service provider to the pharma industry with a main focus supporting clinical trials in liver diseases and other prevalent human diseases as well as research in indications where metabolomic plays a key role, including the identification of potential therapeutic targets involved in the development of such diseases. The company is one of the leading key players in the global NASH biomarker market.

Since its inception, OWL has pioneered unique diagnostic research within the fatty liver space, a field of considerable focus in new drug development. The ‘OWLiver’ and ‘OWLiver Care’ assays are the world’s first metabolomics-based in-vitro tests for diagnosing non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) versus today’s diagnostic gold-standard which mandates an invasive liver biopsy.