AFBI seeks to profit from outsourcing

Affinity Biotech Inc. is aiming to take advantage of increased outsourcing by pharmaceutical and biotech companies - a response to economic pressures caused by the changing health care climate - by creating a wholly owned subsidiary to provide drug development services.

One catalyst for the new unit was the evidence of demand for the services, said Wayne Weisman, executive vice president. Donald Monkhouse, who was vice president and director of pharmaceutical sciences at SmithKline Beecham, will head the new subsidiary. He came to AFBI "with evidence of demand for it - he'd had so many inquiries," said Weisman. "In the Philadelphia area, with so many large pharmaceutical companies, and layoffs occurring, it stood to reason that there weren't enough resources in-house to do some of this."...