LEO Pharma and ICON enter a Strategic Partnership to propel clinical trial execution within medical dermatology

The mission of the partnership is to improve the lives of dermatology patients with access to innovative clinical trials and the launch of new medicines. The partnership will operate under the acronym of PACE, reflecting the requirement to move quickly to address today’s clinical development challenges. It also represents LEO Pharma and ICON’s shared values of Passion, Agility, Communication and Excellence in delivery.

Building on earlier collaboration successes within psoriasistrials, LEO Pharma expect to further strengthen its transformation journey by entering a strategic partnership with ICON. The partnership will leverage both fully outsourced and functional outsourcing models in a tailored and flexible hybrid approach. LEO Pharma plans to achieve the following while remaining a patient centric company:

• Drive efficiencies in clinical trials  
• Significant and lean scalability in all areas of expertise within clinical development   
• Co-investment within the area of decentralised clinical trials  
• Access to a significant number of ICON in-house ancillary services  
• Economies of scope and scale  
• Access to external data, knowledge & expertise as well as technologies 
• A partnership with a company that shares similar core values 

“We’ve been exploring several outsourcing models but found a hybrid sourcing model to be the most efficient. Partnering with ICON supports our 2030 strategy as it will help us to bring innovative treatments to patients faster while also supporting a more sustainable business through scalability and flexibility,” said Jörg Möller, Executive Vice President and head of Global R&D at LEO Pharma. “ICON’s wealth of services and leading position in clinical development will support LEO Pharma’s R&D strategy building on driving innovation through partnerships and support staying competitive.”

In supporting LEO Pharma through this partnership, ICON will draw upon a team of over 500 professionals from across its business to deliver tailored solutions, bringing differentiating and enabling capabilities including its laboratories, Accellacare site-network, FIRECREST site management and decentralised clinical trial capabilities to create strategic advantage in how the trials are delivered.  

“ICON is delighted to enter this partnership with LEO Pharma that truly takes advantage of our breadth of capability and expertise. We take a flexible and integrated approach when working with our partners, utilising fully outsourced, hybrid and FSP models that complement our partner’s internal capabilities and enable them to achieve their strategic goals. It is also motivating for our employees to be working with a partner that shares our values and has a commitment to improving the lives of patients,” said Steve Cutler, CEO, ICON.