Asterand

Asterand Bioscience was a global provider of high-quality, well-characterized human tissue and human tissue-based research solutions for drug discovery scientists. The company's mission was to supply human-based solutions to accelerate the identification and validation of drug targets, aiming to improve the selection of drug candidates with a higher probability of clinical success.

The company has a rich history, formed in 2006 through a merger between Asterand, a human tissue biorepository founded in 2000, and Pharmagene, a human tissue-based drug discovery company established in 1996. This merger combined expertise in human tissue procurement, characterization, and research tools. One of Asterand's original founders was Randal Charlton, who started the company with the venture firm Oxford Bioscience Partners in 2002 to supply human tissue samples to drug companies. Over the years, Asterand became a significant private supplier of clinical human tissue in the United States, establishing relationships with numerous donor sites and creating standardized procurement protocols.

Asterand served a clientele that included pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and diagnostic companies, as well as academic institutions. Its business model was centered on providing ethically procured human tissues, biofluids, and clinical data through services like its XpressBANK biobank and the custom collection BioSPOKE service. Additionally, its PhaseZERO drug discovery services platform offered a fee-for-service collaborative scientific approach, where clients would retain all resulting intellectual property and data. In August 2017, Asterand Bioscience was acquired by BioIVT, a provider of biospecimens and related services. The acquisition expanded BioIVT's portfolio of disease-state biospecimens, particularly in oncology, and combined the strengths of both companies to offer a full research workflow solution, from specimen sourcing to data collection.

Keywords: human tissue, biospecimens, biobank, drug discovery, research solutions, biorepository, oncology research, biomarker validation, target identification, preclinical research, tissue procurement, clinical data, cell-based assays, pharmaceutical services, biotechnology, diagnostics, human-based solutions, drug development, clinical success, biofluids