Profil Institute and Mercodia Announce Partnership Offering Insulin and Metabolism ELISA Assays to Enhance Diabetes and Obesity Clinical Trials

SAN DIEGO and UPPSALA, Sweden, April 10, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Profil® Institute for Clinical Research, Inc., a clinical research institute optimizing early phase diabetes, obesity and cardiometabolic drug development, and Mercodia AB, an industry-leading developer of immunoassays for metabolic clinical and research applications, jointly announced today a strategic alliance to include Mercodia's enzyme-linked immnosorbent assays (ELISA) as a component of Profil Institute's early phase clinical services. 

Both Profil Institute and Mercodia are widely recognized for their expertise in diabetes, obesity and cardiometabolic research.  Profil Institute is a center of excellence for early phase metabolic clinical research and is renowned for its expertise in proof of mechanism methods, including first-in-patient and automated glucose clamp studies, and its large patient recruitment database.  Mercodia is globally recognized for its robust ELISA assay development for metabolic clinical research and to study the pharmacokinetics of insulin and metabolic peptides.  Mercodia's assays will now be offered to Profil Institute's clients as a component of the clinical trial process. 

"With the addition of Mercodia's robust ELISA assays, we further enhance our wide scope of clinical research services, generating unprecedented investigative standards for early phase diabetes and obesity drug development," said Dr. Marcus Hompesch, Profil Institute CEO. "Our scientific understanding of diabetes and of the pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic effects of insulin, as well as our expertise working with all diabetes drug classes, enables us to provide highly conclusive data so that our clients can make the best decisions, as early as possible, about the further development of their drug candidates."

"We are very pleased to partner with Profil Institute and therefore combine our disease area expertise for a powerful outcome in the precision of clinical research data," said Mona Österberg, CEO of Mercodia AB.  "Together we will deliver greater scientific insight to Profil Institute's customers enhancing their overall metabolic drug development program at the earliest stage of clinical research in humans."

About Mercodia AB
Mercodia AB is a Swedish biotech company focusing on the development of highly reproducible and specific ELISA assays within the field of metabolic disorders.  Mercodia is a world-leading supplier to all major international markets and provides a professional scientific support system to develop novel applications for existing products and unique diagnostics for emerging markets.  The facilities include a GLP-compliant laboratory and a customized assay development core managed by our extensive quality system and ISO 13485 for manufacturing medical devices.  For more information visit www.mercodia.com.

About Profil® Institute for Clinical Research, Inc.
Profil Institute is internationally renowned as a Center of Excellence for early phase clinical research of drugs and devices for diabetes, obesity and cardiometabolic diseases. The company's scientific expertise, advanced metabolic clinical research methodologies, and automated glucose clamp technology enable Profil Institute to execute studies of far more complexity and have led Profil Institute to be the most highly regarded clinical research institute for early phase diabetes drug studies. Profil Institute has been involved with every clinically promising drug class in diabetes and in more than 175 clinical studies since the company's inception in 2004. For more information visit www.profilinstitute.com. 

SOURCE Profil Institute for Clinical Research