Twenty four years ago, in November 1984, one year after NOTOX’s foundation, Dr. N.J.A. Noorduyn, the founder of NOTOX, introduced the first issue of NOTOX News. In 2008 we are issuing this NOTOX News to mark the occasion of our 25th anniversary.

As many of you may know – and several people tell the tale in this special edition – NOTOX was founded as a result of the requirement by industry for data sets to be completed for the registration of new chemical entities. This changed from EINECS to ELINCS in 1982. Back then NOTOX started in Rotterdam as Noorduyn Toxicology with the first genetic studies. Over the years the subtitle of NOTOX changed through:

• Noorduyn Toxicology
• Toxicological Research & Consultancy
• Safety & Environmental Research
• For a safe and prosperous future
• Dedicated. Crystal clear

With the changing subscript the service portfolio also changed. The company started out providing services to the chemical industry; then the agro-chemical industry gradually became part of our client base, followed by the pharmaceutical industry. Nowadays NOTOX operates at a global level in all three segments of the market, with a special focus on the pharmaceutical industry’s pre-clinical and environmental requirements. However, the chemical and crop-protection/biocidal industries remain a strong part of our service portfolio. Over the years NOTOX also underwent various changes from a business point of view. In 1988 we became part of the Swiss based CRO RCC, a move that enabled further growth and that after 5 years resulted in a management buy-out. From 1993 to 2005 NOTOX was a private company with turnover and personnel growth in double figures.

2005 saw a major change. A US-based investment group agreed a leveraged buy-out with the NOTOX management and secured further growth of the company in WIL Research Holding. This latest change made it possible for NO TOX to expand further and to achieve growth of 40% in toxicology; the workforce also grew from 240 to over 300 people in the last months of the year. Regarding the service provided NOTOX was at the forefront of the scientific and regulatory developments involved in the required studies. We sought out the best proposals for our clients and guaranteed that these would be accepted by the competent authorities when dossiers were submitted; this earned us recognition of the high-quality work we provided. Optimisation of our operational activities and the implementation of new procedures in data evaluation is raising our performance to the highest possible level. All this is done in collaboration with our sister companies in the holding company. As regards industrial chemicals NOTOX has a global client base of roughly 3,000 companies ranging from small enterprises to large multinationals. Contacts with these clients are maintained as much as possible at local level from four locations: our headquarters in The Netherlands, a Swiss representative office, a US representative office and an office in Japan. This enables us to communicate with most of our clients either in their own language or in their own time zone.

We mentioned that NOTOX was founded as a result of the change in chemical legislation in Europe. Today, on our 25th anniversary, we are facing another change in legislation in Europe. REACH is replacing the “old” Dangerous Substance Directive 67/548 and the amendments to it. This will lead to changes at NOTOX as well. In the past we primarily handled the registration of new chemicals at different volume levels start ing at 10 kg/year. Now and over the next 10-15 years we will be dealing with lots of existing chemicals that need to be re viewed and evaluated, in addition to new chemicals that need registration dossiers when amounts exceed 1,000 kg/year.

These new requirements from the market meant changes at NOTOX as we developed from a CRO that “ran studies” with notification activities into a CRO that provides high-level consultancy and pro vides assistance in completing a dossier for either an existing substance (phase-in) or a new substance (non-phase-in). This change is reflected in our regulatory affairs department, where the number of people has grown from 12 to 20 over the last two years and will probably grow further in the next few years.

Twenty five years ago the NOTOX facilities were surrounded by green pastures; today NOTOX is an important part of a high-tech park with extensive sophisticated facilities and technology. At that time the NOTOX building was a state-of-the-art facility, ahead of all the other labs in the Netherlands. Nowadays the NOTOX facilities consist of three buildings; the newest building (opened in June 2008) has the highest-quality technical features, including sustainable energy-management systems.

To conclude, NOTOX has developed over the last 25 years in every possible aspect, putting huge effort into staying ahead of its clients’ needs and preparing for future investments. So we look forward to the future, and another 25 years of fun and pleasure in providing our clients with a high-quality performance to enable them to market their products efficiently.