NEWARK, Del.—Aimed at expanding its presence in the rapidly growing Asian market and enhancing its global footprint with the addition of critical late-stage clinical trial capabilities, global analytical provider QPS LLC, a contract research organization (CRO), has acquired the majority stake in Qualitix Clinical Research, a CRO with offices in China and Taiwan.
The Qualitix deal, announced March 8, is the fourth cross-border acquisition for QPS in the last six months. Based in Taipei and Shanghai, Qualitix is a spinoff from Taiwan-based biotechnology company Genovate, which retains a minority interest in the operation, renamed QPS-Qualitix Taiwan.
QPS-Qualitix also owns a subsidiary corporation called Unitix, a site management organization that gives QPS-Qualitix the advantage of speedy patient recruitment in the region.
With its Asia-Pacific network of CRO partners, QPS-Qualitix has become a route to the Asian market, focusing on clinical trials in Taiwan including trials for oncology, metabolic disorders and others.
"QPS is one of the largest bioanalytical providers in the world, in terms of capability, capacity, quality and global presence," says Benjamin Chien, founder, president and CEO of QPS Holdings LLC. "QPS is also known for its strength in preclinical to early clinical service areas. QPS has a strong presence in preclinical and Phase I capability globally, while Qualitix has been conducting global Phase II to IV trials for more than 10 years. Now, QPS will be able to continue to serve our Phase I clients to continue their Phase II studies and beyond—especially when they have interest to conduct the studies in the Asia Pacific region."
QPS has more than 500 customers globally, which includes the major pharmaceutical and many biotech companies and generic companies, Chien says. QPS has 400 Phase I beds globally, with Phase I clinical sites located in the Netherlands, India, Taiwan and the United States, one of the largest sites with 240 beds.
"QPS is positioned to serve clients globally and is committed to provide high-quality yet competitive pricing," Chien said. "QPS wants to partner with our clients for their success and can provide the clients the options of high-quality offshore capability to reduce clients' overall drug development costs."
Vincent Yen, president and CEO of QPS-Taiwan, adds, "This expansion in Phase I-IV clinical capability dovetails with our recent preclinical facility acquisition here in Taiwan. Clients all over the world will now have access to an even wider range of the exceptional services they have come to expect from QPS, along with an expanding global footprint."
State-of-the-art clinical trial management and electronic data capture systems enable QPS-Qualitix to deliver data management and biostatistics services to complement the same streamlined clinical information capabilities offered by QPS Netherlands and QPS-Bioserve India.
QPS-Qualitix has an established network of prominent Taiwanese investigators at all 22 medical centers. The depth and breadth of QPS-Qualitix's experience in this therapeutic field attracts major clients and partners, including global pharmaceutical clients, as well as local pharmaceutical and biotech clients from the Asia-Pacific region.
