inviCRO, a Boston-based imaging company founded in 2008, announced this week that it has acquired Molecular NeuroImaging (MNI) and the two companies are merging all activities under the name inviCRO. MNI will operate as a division within inviCRO.

“MNI is a recognized leader in neurological-focused imaging and scintigraphy services, and it is an honor to combine our two organizations to provide our global customers the most comprehensive imaging service offering available,” Jack Hoppin, PhD, inviCRO co-founder and CEO, said in a prepared statement. “We have long been focused on improving the paradigm of cost-effective, time-efficient drug development efforts through imaging.”

In the past, inviCRO primarily focused its efforts on early-stage research, while MNI has a history of developing radioligands and using them in early clinical trials.

“MNI’s clinical trial model is a tremendous platform on which inviCRO can expand its clinical offerings and ensure that there is a fully translational imaging service offering for any therapeutic area,” Christian Lackas, PhD, inviCRO co-founder and managing director, said in the same statement. “The clinical capabilities will be further leveraged by the use of inviCRO’s advanced analytics capabilities and leading software platforms, VivoQuant™ and iPACS®, which are used to manage, organize, and process both nonclinical and clinical imaging data for our pharmaceutical, device and life sciences research customers.”