Many of the prescription medicines on the market today were developed with the assistance of Covance Inc., one of the world’s largest drug-development services companies. Covance helps pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies by providing testing services including preclinical investigations; by designing and carrying out human clinical trials; and by determining the safety and effectiveness of drugs through post-marketing studies. Covance also conducts toxicology studies and biostatistical analyses and offers testing services for the chemical, agrochemical and food industries.
The company was born of a Corning Inc. move into laboratory and clinical services during the 1980s, when the glass maker acquired a number of drug-development companies. In 1997, it spun off these businesses into a single publicly traded, independent entity Covance. As of last year, the company’s revenues of more than $2 billion earned for it the No. 858 position on the Fortune 1,000. Covance maintains headquarters in Princeton, N.J., and has more than 11,000 employees in 60 countries.
