RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C., Oct. 16 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Quintiles Transnational Corp. today announced plans to open a central lab in Mumbai, India, further expanding the company’s global network of labs that support global and regional clinical trials.
The new lab, owned and operated by Quintiles, will be equipped and staffed before the end of 2006 and is expected to be ready to support new trials in the first quarter of 2007. The lab is located in Leela Business Park in Mumbai together with Quintiles’ core clinical research and electrocardiogram (ECG) businesses.
“Close coordination between clinical investigators and a central lab network helps assure the high quality of data and improves the timeliness of sample processing,” said Tom Wollman, Senior Vice President, Quintiles Global Central Laboratories. “Investigators are very aware of the time needed to transport samples to central labs, so the addition of a lab in India will give investigators more flexibility in scheduling patient examinations and help them complete studies on time.”
Alan Ong, Vice President and General Manager, Quintiles Labs Asia, said: “Because we will be among the first global central laboratories in India, it also will help our sponsors expand their options to support global clinical trials, particularly regarding access to patients. For Quintiles, this allows us to further maximize our global reach while minimizing our customers’ shipping costs, and because it is a fully owned facility, all operations from sample management to testing to final data transfer will be tightly controlled under our global core quality standard.”
Ong added that the lab in India “means that together with our existing labs in China and Singapore that cover Asia Pacific, Quintiles Laboratories will have facilities in all the major recruitment hubs in Asia.” He said the Mumbai lab will participate in proficiency surveys as a prelude to obtaining full certification by the College of American Pathologists (CAP).
Ferzaan Engineer, CEO of Quintiles India, said the new lab in Mumbai will contribute to the continued growth of the regional business. “Since its inception in 1997, our core clinical research business has grown exponentially due to strong customer demand for quality investigator sites in India,” Engineer said. “The new central laboratory in Mumbai will enhance the suite of services we offer in India, which include ECG, interactive voice response (IVR) and data management services as well as clinical research.” The India company has about 675 employees in offices in Bangalore, Mumbai and Ahmedabad.
The Mumbai lab will provide access to Quintiles laboratory kits, ensure all study samples are processed using consistent methods and completed in a timely manner and will oversee the data transfer for inclusion in the Quintiles Laboratory Information Management System (QLIMS) and the protocol- specific database.
About Quintiles Laboratories
Quintiles Laboratories owns a network of clinically harmonized facilities in the U.S., Europe, South Africa, India and Singapore, and has a tightly controlled network of sub-contractor laboratories in China, Argentina and Brazil managed by Quintiles employees located in each of the sub-contractor facilities.
About Quintiles
Quintiles is the global leader in pharmaceutical services, improving healthcare worldwide by providing innovative, quality professional expertise, market intelligence and partnering solutions to meet the dynamic needs of the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and healthcare industries. Quintiles has 16,000 specialized employees and offices in more than 50 countries. For more information visit the company’s Web site at www.quintiles.com.
Quintiles Transnational Corp.
CONTACT: Dick Jones, Media Relations, +1-919-998-2091, ormedia.info@quintiles.com, or Greg Connors, Investor Relations,+1-919-998-2000, or invest@quintiles.com, both of Quintiles TransnationalCorp.
Web site: http://www.quintiles.com//
