Wilmington, DE, February 27, 2006—In 2001, when Julie Eble opened Critical Path Services (CPS), a scientific consulting and document management firm, she had no trouble recruiting qualified staff for her new venture. The sale of a local pharmaceutical company and cutbacks in other area businesses had resulted in a number of highly talented and experienced people seeking a new employer.

"Several of our employees formerly worked for large corporations. Their extensive training in the regulatory field was a great asset for a start-up science business," Eble says. "And they were pleased to discover that the small company experience is challenging and exciting and offers a wide variety of opportunities that they'd never get in a big company."

CPS, which currently occupies 2,300 square feet of office space in the DEXSTA building on Foulk Road, has enjoyed a five-year growth spurt since the company opened with just Eble at the helm and one small consulting contract. Today, the company employs more than 30 people, and with growing recognition of the analytical expertise of its consultants, the company strongly felt the need for its own lab space.

However, the cost of additional commercial space and the large capital investment required for state-of-the-art analytical instrumentation made the decision to move forward a difficult one. After examining the pros and cons throughout the winter, CPS signed a lease in December for an additional 1,660 square feet of space in Concord Plaza. The location of the laboratory, on Silverside Road just off Route 202, is just minutes away from the Foulk Road office. The company's analytical staff, who previously divided their time between the CPS office and clients' labs, eagerly looks forward to working in their own lab space.

"It is really useful to have a mixture of experience in and out of the laboratory, but having our own lab now ensures that our skills remain top notch and that we provide our clients with cutting-edge technology," says Dr. Karen L'Empereur, senior scientist and lab manager.

The greater Philadelphia area was recently identified by the Milken Institute as one of the top three clusters in the nation for the life sciences industry. CPS seeks to fill the high demand for quality quantitative analysis in the life sciences and chemical industries with its new laboratory services. The lab specializes in chromatographic quantitative analysis (LC/UV and LC/MS/MS). Different levels of equipment are housed in separate rooms to prevent cross-contamination and allow CPS to quantitate both high and low concentrations of active ingredients in various substances, ranging from a field of crops to a single pill.

CPS takes full occupancy of the Concord Plaza space in March. Although the space had been used as an analytical lab previously, CPS essentially started with a gutted shell. Veteran skills in project management facilitated the complex task of building the lab from the ground up during the last four months. The new laboratory will be fully compliant with Good Laboratory Practice regulations.

The lab staff, led by Eble, has a proven track record of delivering studies on time, on target and in compliance with the demands of regulatory agencies around the world. "As we approach our fifth anniversary, the opening of the lab is not just a tactical decision but a part of our strategic vision of the future," says Eble. "The external need for a laboratory is there, but CPS is also committed to harnessing its core scientific talent. More growth opportunities sprout throughout the company with the ability of CPS to run its own studies."