The Coping Stone of a Stimulating State-of-the-Art Package

Beerse, March 14, 2005 – When Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceutical Research & Development approved the disbursement of 180 million dollars for five big investment projects in Belgium, 68 million dollars was allocated for the Dr. Paul Janssen Research Center (PJRC, Early Discovery) and 44 million for the Drug Safety Evaluation Center (DSEC, Preclinical Development). The first building was inaugurated a few months ago, and on March 14 it is the turn of the DSEC, the neighbor opposite. With this realization, the coping stone of a stimulating state-of-the-art package will have been laid.

By virtue of their function and their location, the DSEC and the PJRC form an ideal complementary couple. This complementarity will be reflected, in among other ways, by the landscape of the joint environment. The planting design, the paving and the signposting will be uniform for the various J&JPRD facilities. The toxicology and safety evaluation departments are due to move house this fall. The animal housing units will be transferred shortly after the summer. In October and November the laboratories will become operational and toward the end of the year the offices will follow suite.

Global Vision
The various R&D companies in the Johnson & Johnson family rally round a common global vision and goal: to exploit fully J&J's in-house expertise by bringing the talents of its staff members into contact with one another in worldwide Centers of Excellence, like the future-oriented Drug Safety Evaluation Center. In particular, this center is a toxicology laboratory in which 145 scientists and technicians from Belgium and abroad will investigate the safety of newly synthesized active molecules at three levels: through computer models, in vitro on cell lines, and in vivo in experimental animals.

Of Considerable Strategic Importance
The strategic importance of the mission of the researchers who will work there could not be clearer.
“It has been defined with extreme precision,” stressed Werner Coussement, Vice President, Global Preclinical Development (PCD). “Eliminate as many molecules as possible with unacceptable side effects before clinical trials with these substances start – nothing less than that. The goal is dual: First, guarantee maximal safety before a substance is administered to humans; Second, avoid a situation in which the research, despite earlier safety efforts, still has to be called off at a later stage. We support worldwide the five pharmaceutical R&D companies in the group: Johnson & Johnson Pharmaceutical Research & Development, Tibotec, ALZA, Scios, and Centocor.