ICON Central Laboratories Doubles Biospecimen Storage Capacity

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Dublin, Ireland, 12th November 2012 - ICON plc (NASDAQ: ICLR; ISIN:IE0005711209), a global provider of outsourced development services to the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device industries, today announced it has expanded the biorepository capacity in its Central Laboratory located in Farmingdale, New York. The expansion doubles ICON's sample storage capacity globally and supports the long term sample storage needs of clinical trials.

"We're investing in this expansion to meet our sponsor's biorepository needs and because we believe that long-term preservation of samples is essential for the future of drug development, in particular for personalised medicine strategies that foresee an ever-increasing need for downstream analysis," commented Tom O'Leary, President, ICON Central Laboratories. "The co-location of our biorepository services with our central labs in North America, Europe, Singapore and India is critical, as it allows for future analysis while minimising the risks and costs associated with transporting samples."

ICON's global biorepository facilities store a wide-range of specimens, including plasma, serum, whole blood, RNA, DNA, peripheral blood mononuclear cell (PBMC), urine and tissue at frozen storage conditions of -20°C, -70°C, -80°C, and -150°C liquid nitrogen. This latest expansion provides additional capacity to ICON's existing end-to-end biospecimen management solution, which ensures sample integrity and full chain of custody across the entire lifecycle from collection and processing to final disposal.

About ICON plc
ICON plc is a global provider of outsourced development services to the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device industries. The company specialises in the strategic development, management and analysis of programs that support clinical development - from compound selection to Phase I-IV clinical studies. ICON currently has approximately 9,300 employees, operating from 82 locations in 40 countries.