vivoPharm buys RMIT's toxicology business

RMIT University has arranged to sell its toxicology testing business, RMIT Drug Discovery Technologies (RDDT), to CRO vivoPharm in an all-stock deal.

RMIT will become a 20% shareholder in vivoPharm as a result of the transaction.

Adelaide-based vivoPharm will also move its Australian headquarters to the RMIT Bundoora campus in Victoria, where RDDT operates.

“Relocating the company’s headquarters to Melbourne, with the largest concentration of biotechnology companies in Australia, places the company close to many of its existing and potential Australian customers,” said vivoPharm's new chairman, Dr Ian Nisbet.

RDDT is a GLP-compliant pre-clinical toxicology testing company founded and owned by RMIT. It was established in 2004 with support from the Victorian government.

RDDT chairman Derek Young said RMIT has recently been investigating the prospect of expanding RDDT into international markets, and has decided that vivoPharm would be a strong partner to help fulfil this goal.

“After six years of development, RDDT is ready to move to the next level of preclinical toxicology safety testing.

“We did exactly what we set out to accomplish – we developed a business that has caught the attention of an established, Australian based but internationally focused company.”

vivoPharm was founded in Adelaide in 2003, and also has US operations in the state of Pennsylvania and a sales and marketing office in Germany.

In January, the company signed a partnership deal with German oncology testing company Experimental Pharmacology & Oncology (EPO).

The deal will allow vivoPharm to offer EPO's range of primary patient-derived tumours to US cancer research institutions.