MDS Pharma Services' Central Labs business will now be known as Clearstone Central Laboratories, and becomes part of Czura Thornton's Life Sciences Group. 

In a joint statement, Czura Thornton's founders Tony Czura and Nick Thornton said: "We are delighted to augment our Life Sciences Group with Clearstone Central Laboratories and the deep expertise of the people there. We intend to maintain the integrity of the operational teams and continue to invest in strengthening the company's focus on exceptional client service. Combined with our renewed focus on the consistent delivery of high quality service, flexibility and responsiveness that private ownership allows, we look forward to expanding Clearstone's market reach." Czura Thornton also owns the CRO Chiltern, as well as other interests in life sciences, international trade, property and automtive sectors. This 

 discusses Czura Thornton's plans for Clearstone moving forward. 

Clearstone Central Laboratories is a large private Global Central Laboratory companies solely focused on clinical research and cardiac services. Through a  network of wholly owned CAP certified laboratories, Clearstone offers central laboratory services  in the Americas, Europe and Asia, which are all  equivalently equipped and harmonized to provide consistent, dependable results across programs, study phases and geographies. In addition, Clearstone leverages information technology tools aligned with value add project management principles for managing global clinical trials. Each of its laboratories utilizes the company's centralized APOLLO-CLPM™ (Central Laboratory Protocol Manager) enabling Clearstone project management teams with real-time visibility to component and test level data. Viq Pervaaz, Vice President of Global Project Management commented, "We facilitate our strong project management and data management teams with innovative technology solutions and an advanced web based protocol management system to meet the needs of our clients."

Clearstone Central Laboratories has over 600 employees and facilities in Paris, Hamburg, Toronto, New Jersey, *Beijing and Singapore.
 For further information see www.clearstonelabs.com.
*The acquisition of the China business is pending subject to receipt of required Chinese governmental approvals.