The Avacta - Agenda 1 strategic relationship was born of many factors. Some, such as the close geographical proximity and relative youth of both businesses are simply coincidental, others are more fundamental.

Both companies focus on their key strengths. For Avacta this is biopharmaceuticals, biophysical analysis, microscopy, and surface characterisation. For Agenda1 it is the pharmaceutical market, and especially the range of resources and skills required to progress an early stage R&D molecule through to bioequivalence trials. Consequently, the two companies are targeting similar markets but with very different services. Thus, the decision to form an alliance was natural.

In practice, the synergistic benefits have been found to be wider than anticipated. As the pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical sectors continue to move towards outsourcing and working as virtual teams, the added breadth of solutions and technologies available to both companies means they can provide a wider range of solutions to their clients, especially as more and more companies begin to operate across both small and large molecule pipelines. Leads from one part of the alliance to the other are rarely as a result of overt marketing efforts, but more a reaction to a client request. Prior to the alliance such requests might well have been answered with a "We don't do that" response, now they can be answered by "Yes, we can arrange that".

As the companies work together they continue to seek out opportunities to partner with organisations that can add strength to their alliance, ensuring that each new collaboration also provides great benefit for customers.