RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C.—Quintiles has signed a strategic alliance agreement with University Malaya Medical Center in Malaysia to create the company's first prime site in Asia.
The alliance continues the expansion of Quintiles' Prime Site concept, an initiative launched to improve trial efficiencies by establishing strong links to large clinical research institutions at a number of locations.
According to Adam Chasse, vice president of access to patients for Quintiles, prime sites are larger clinical institutions that work with Quintiles to conduct clinical trials. The sites generally are a large hospital or healthcare system that is looking to expand research capabilities fairly aggressively.
"Quintiles offers its time and resources to these sites to build their infrastructure," Chasse says. "We currently have five sites with several more in development around the world."
In addition to the location in Malaysia, the CRO already has prime sites at Queen Mary's College in London, the Washington Hospital Center in Washington, D.C., the University of Pretoria in South Africa and the Southern California Permanente Medical Group.
The success has been easily quantified. Chasse notes that Quintiles has seen far better trial delivery success since integrating with the prime sites.
"We feel that with these big centers, we are getting access to thought leaders and the right types of data that will help us help the industry make better decisions in the long run," he says.
Tapping into Malaysia's patient population also will help Quintiles boost recruitment rates and strengthening relationships with staff.
"The University Malaya Medical Centre is an ideal partner for us because of its experience in conducting clinical research, its access to substantial patient populations and its clinical expertise across multiple therapeutic areas," notes Dr. Christopher Cabell, senior vice president of global access to patients at Quintiles. "Through this new alliance, Quintiles will be able to significantly improve its reach to patients and investigators who are critical to facilitating the increasingly complex therapies under development."
Chasse also points out that the prime sites are proving to be beneficial to customers because "they provide more consistency and get more predicable delivery of patients and quality from these sites that we are working with and that we know very well.
"The University Malaya Medical Centre is a site that we've had a fairly long and successful history with," he adds. "They already have fairly robust processes and are looking to partner with industry to enhance their infrastructure."
From a clinical research standpoint, Asia has long held special promise for the global biopharmaceutical industry's future as companies work to minimize time and cost to market, as well as capitalize on the innovation occurring throughout the region.
Chasse also views the alliance with UMMC is another example of that dedication and a key step toward enabling the Asia-Pacific region to deliver on its potential in the clinical drug development industry.
Professor Dato' Ikram Shah bin Ismail, director of the University Malaya Medical Centre, says the university takes great pride in "being recognized as a remarkable institution for our long-term commitment and experience in conducting safe and international-caliber clinical research, our clinical expertise across multiple therapeutic areas and our capability to access a large pool of patients."
bin Ismail points out that the partnership with Quintiles will serve as an impetus for UMMC to achieve greater efficiencies in conducting clinical trials.
"By enhancing the efficacy, productivity and quality of clinical research at UMMC, we will ultimately propel the advancement of medical practice in improving human health," he says.
The Prime Site program is already yielding impressive results in its established locations.
Cabell points out that a key to the success of the program so far is Quintiles' efforts to harmonize operational processes, drive efficiencies in start-up and build better relationships with site staff, which in turn supports patient recruitment.
Quintiles isn't a newcomer to the Asia-Pacific region, opening its first office there in 1993. Since that time, the company has grown to more than 20 offices in 14 countries throughout the region with its regional headquarters in Singapore.
During that same timeframe, Quintiles has conducted in excess of 1,300 studies involving greater than 9,000 sites and more than 185,000 patients in the region.
"The region also is attractive to us because Malaysia is one of several countries where the government has made an investment into not just healthcare infrastructure, but research infrastructure," Chasse says. "There is a lot of support from the government in getting their institutions more involved in research."
Through these efforts and experience, Quintiles is able to provide its customers with unmatched expertise and experience across a wide range of therapeutic areas, including cardiovascular disease, oncology, neurology and infectious disease, among many others.
