BALTIMORE, June 16 /PRNewswire/-- SNBL Clinical Pharmacology Center, Inc. (SNBL CPC), a fully-owned subsidiary of Japan's oldest and largest clinical research organization, Shin Nippon Biomedical Laboratories, Ltd. (SNBL), will begin operations in September 2005 in a new state-of-the-art clinical research facility in the University of Maryland, Baltimore's BioPark. The new company will provide research services to help pharmaceutical companies, biotechnology companies and medical device manufacturers bring new products to market through testing and development.
SNBL CPC will focus on Phase I/IIa clinical trials, particularly safety and tolerability testing, including dose ranging, single, multi-dose, and ascending dose trials. It will specialize in drug-drug and food-drug interaction trials with pharmacokinetics and/or pharmacodynamic endpoints, bioequivalence, pharmacodynamic/dose/concentration effects, proof of concept, and novel delivery systems.
"Our staff's experience in clinical trials will encompass a broad spectrum of therapeutic areas," noted Takeshi Yamakawa, Chief Operating Officer and President of the company. "We will have capabilities in the areas of CNS, cardiovascular, respiratory, gastrointestinal, hormone/anti-hormone, urology, dermatology, oncology, antihistaminic, and antibiotic agents as well as biologicals and alternative medicines. To start our operation, we plan to have more than 28 employees by year-end 2005."
SNBL Clinical Pharmacology Center will be able to access many of University of Maryland, Baltimore Medical Center's (UMB's) facilities, some of its specialized equipment, academic consultants, physicians and other clinicians, and patients.
"Our collaboration with UMB is our first partnership outside Japan and the first joint enterprise ever between an American state university and a private Japanese company," said Mr. Yamakawa. "We selected UMB because of the university's significant resources."
Mr. Yamakawa explained that UMB has established a Center for Clinical Trials within the medical school and the necessary support system to conduct high-quality trials efficiently. Its staff has extensive experience in international drug development. UMB will be able to refer its clients to SNBL Clinical Pharmacology Center for Phase I clinical studies. In addition, SNBL Clinical Pharmacology Center will enjoy access to the university's faculty and facilities. UMB's faculty will be available to consult on SNBL-conducted clinical trials and to provide other consulting services, such as designing protocols, providing pharmacokinetic analyses, and assisting with data management and analysis.
The 40,000-square-foot SNBL Clinical Pharmacology Center will be the anchor tenant for the University of Maryland, Baltimore BioPark, an eight-facility biomedical research, development, and manufacturing center with one million square feet of office and lab space currently being constructed on the university's downtown Baltimore campus.
"We are very excited about the capabilities we will be able to offer our clients at our new Baltimore facility," said Ryoichi Nagata, M.D., Ph.D., Chairman and CEO of the new company, and of Shin Nippon Biomedical Laboratories, Ltd., its parent company, headquartered in Tokyo. "Our mission in opening this new clinical research facility is to provide high-quality clinical research by collaborating and partnering with our sponsoring clients, to help accelerate their drug and medical-device development. We are making a sizable investment in capital and human resources. We are committed to conducting timely and cost-efficient clinical trials."
About Shin Nippon Biomedical Laboratories, Ltd.
Shin Nippon Biomedical Laboratories, Ltd., with headquarters in Tokyo, was Japan's first contract research organization (CRO), established in 1957. Since then, the company has grown to support the pharmaceutical industry with a full range of drug development services, including safety research, clinical pharmacology, and pre-clinical, Phase I, Phase II, and Phase III clinical trials.
The SNBL Group now employs more than a thousand professionals and is the largest CRO in Japan. The company also has facilities and offices in the United States (SNBL USA, Ltd., located in Everett, Washington, outside Seattle; and SNBL Clinical Pharmacology Center, Inc., located in Baltimore, Maryland) Europe, and China. The Group is proud of its world-ranking state-of- the-art facilities and technology that provide reliable support for research and drug development for a wide variety of diseases.
More information about SNBL Clinical Pharmacology Center, Inc. is available at its website, http://www.snbl-cpc.com . Information about its parent company, Shin Nippon Biomedical Laboratories, Ltd., is available at its website, http://www.snbl.com/en/.
For more information: Lucy Siegel or Keiko Okano Bridge Worldwide, LLC Bridge Worldwide, LLC 212-583-1043, ext. 12 212-583-1043, ext. 11 lsiegel@bridgeny.com kokano@bridgeny.com
SNBL Clinical Pharmacology Center, Inc.CONTACT: Lucy Siegel, +1-212-583-1043, ext. 12, lsiegel@bridgeny.com, orKeiko Okano, +1-212-583-1043, ext. 11, kokano@bridgeny.com, both of BridgeWorldwide, LLC
Web site: http://www.snbl-cpc.com/
