Quintiles Asia Executives Say CROs Must Evaluate, Adjust To New Health Landscape: An Interview With PharmAsia News (Part 2 of 2)

The world's largest contract research organization, Quintiles Transnational has been operating in Asia-Pacific for more than 17 years. Two Asia-based executives, Quintiles India CEO Dr. Ferzaan Engineer and Senior VP and Head of Clinical Development for Quintiles Asia-Pacific Dr. Mr. Tharmaratnam recently shared their views with PharmAsia News on the changing CRO landscape in Asia. In part one of the interview, they talked about clinical research and development trends in the region, and opportunities and challenges for multinational CROs operating in China.

The world's largest contract research organization, Quintiles Transnational has been operating in Asia-Pacific for more than 17 years. Two Asia-based executives, Quintiles India CEO Dr. Ferzaan Engineer and Senior VP and Head of Clinical Development for Quintiles Asia-Pacific Dr. Mr. Tharmaratnam recently shared their views with PharmAsia News on the changing CRO landscape in Asia. In (Also see "Quintiles Asia Executives Say CROs Must Evaluate, Adjust To New Health Landscape: An Interview With PharmAsia News (Part 1 of 2)" - Scrip, 18 Jan, 2010.) of the interview, they talked about clinical research and development trends in the region, and opportunities and challenges for multinational CROs operating in China.

In the second part of the interview, they explain the benefits of their new business model with Eisai. Quintiles surprised the industry and announced a strategic alliance to collaborate with Tokyo-based Eisai to perform 11 proof-of-concept trials with six oncology compounds on a risk-sharing basis. Under that deal. Quintiles will fund, in part, the design and conduct the studies in exchange for success milestone payments ( (Also see "Quintiles And Eisai Collaborate To Develop Cancer Compounds" - Scrip, 2 Nov, 2009.) ).

The execs also discussed the CRO's increasing footprint in India and the importance of operations there.

PharmAsia News : What are the benefits to you for the Eisai deal model? Do you see more such deals with other pharmaceutical companies in Asia-Pacific down the road?

Anand Tharmaratnam: For one, this model enables us to leverage our depth of expertise for our customers across the entire Quintiles organization within specific therapeutic areas (in this case oncology). In addition, models such as this one enable us to further build, foster and leverage our global relationships with investigators around the world on behalf of our customers. From best-in-region opinion leaders/investigators in emerging countries to established site relationships in more mature markets, this type of model enables us to deepen our relationships with these investigators and sites while providing our customers with the best services possible. Finally, it solidifies our leadership role in the industry and our role as an ally to our customers. With our talented people, unparalleled breadth and agility as an organization, strong relationships with investigators and global and local expertise, we consider ourselves to be unique in the marketplace and this type of model helps contribute to those abilities.

For the second part of your question regarding similar deals with other companies in Asia-Pacific in the future, there is certainly a strong possibility for additional deals in the future. As companies throughout the Asia-Pacific region continue to develop innovative pipelines, Quintiles will be there to assist in the innovation process. In an ideal set-up, our customers will continue to retain the compound/drug intellectual property and we will want to own the development process aspects. I believe that we are ideally and uniquely positioned to do just that here in Asia-Pacific and around the world and today's new health landscape.

PharmAsia News: What are some trends you see in the Japanese CRO market?

Tharmaratnam: Japan is slowly but surely integrating with global registration studies to reduce the "drug lag" of registration in Japan. This is a very clear and definite trend that biopharmaceutical companies and CROs are helping to lead. In addition, we are continuing to see East Asia as a growth region for clinical studies being used for Japanese registration studies.

PharmAsia News: Do you have a progress update for expansion in Singapore?

Tharmaratnam: In early November, we officially opened ournew, state-of-the art Asia-Pacific Regional Headquarters facility in Singapore's Science Park. Quintiles opened its first offices in Asia-Pacific in 1993 and our first Singapore office in 1995. Since opening those first offices in the region, we've grown to a total of more than 20 offices in 14 countries with over 4,000 employees.

Before opening our new Singapore facility, we maintained three separate locations to house our various Singapore operations. By moving into the new facility, we were was able to double our leased space - enabling us to consolidate all of our Singapore operations into one facility and better accommodate the continued and anticipated growth in demand for our services in the region.

Currently, the new facility is home to approximately 250 employees with space to essentially double that figure in the coming years as we continue to grow our operations and presence in the region.

In the new facility, we have leased a total of 79,000 square feet, which includes our 13,000 square foot central laboratory. Quintiles operates the largest full-service global central lab operation in the entire region with facilities in Singapore, China, Japan and India.

The new, expanded Singapore lab provides a variety of on-site lab services, including basic safety offerings (chemistry, hematology, coagulation, etc.) as well as capabilities in the areas of flow cytometry, lipids and many other globally harmonized tests.In addition to these existing services, plans are already underway to expand our Singapore lab's capabilities with the addition of an assay development lab (ADL) and an anatomic pathology lab in the coming months.

PharmAsia News: Quintiles, with Apollo Hospitals, will open a Phase I clinical trial unit in Hyderabad, India. Do you serve more local drug makers? What kinds of opportunities do you see in the Indian CRO marketplace?

Ferzaan Engineer : We will open our new Hyderabad-based Phase I facility in 2010, with Apollo Hospitals as a partner. This will round out our global service offering in India. Our growing clinical and laboratory businesses, coupled with technology services provides us with the unique ability to service local, regional and global customers across the entire drug development continuum.

Our data management and pharmacovigilance centers in Bangalore are now the largest of their kind within Quintiles and our Cardiac Safety group has grown to become a regional leader and one of the top three ECG labs in the world. With the recent opening of our new office in Delhi and the new phase I facility in Hyderabad, we will have facilities in five major Indian cities.

In terms of the future, we continue to see significant opportunities in the Indian CRO market. We pioneered the industry when we established our first office here in 1997 and continue our leadership position through strong growth across our services in India. At the same time, the Indian pharmaceutical market has been growing at a rapid clip.

According to some estimates, the Indian pharmaceutical market is valued at approximately $16 billion and is expected to grow to $28.5 billion in five years with a CAGR [compound annual growth rate] of more than 12 percent, making it the world's 10th-largest market in terms of value.

Key to this continued and sustained performance is the infrastructure advancements that have been fueled by the growth occurring within the health insurance and private hospitals sectors. India is also becoming an export hub for branded generics, with an increasing number of multinational companies acquiring stakes in leading Indian companies.

In terms of growth among Indian pharmaceutical companies, we expect local R&D efforts to continue to expand, providing us with a strong local base from which we can continue to grow our services business. These regional innovation efforts are underpinned by large investments in R&D during the past four to five years, some of which are already beginning to yield, for the first time, new chemical entities from the region.

To capitalize on this growth, we plan on pursuing potential alliances with these regional innovators and providing clinical development services from India. As you can see, our expansion into Phase I in India appears to be particularly well timed. It is also important to note that our business in India will continue to benefit from continued pharmaceutical growth throughout the region. India has seen significant R&D investments from its local industry and the Singapore government has also encouraged and attracted investment in the life sciences.

Additionally, a number of top multinational companies have announced more than $2 billion in R&D investments in China. Thus, the demand for CRO services in India will be fueled by continued service exports as well as "homegrown" innovation in the region.

- Brian Yang ([email protected])