Clinical Trials Market Expected to Grow in India Despite Economic Crisis

Outsourcing-pharma discusses in this post that even though the country is going through a rough economic crisis, the Indian clinical trial market is predicted to continue its growth. This information comes from a partner at Ernst & Young, and he also states that biotechs increasingly turning to India will help drive growth from its current $200m a year to $600m a year in 2010, which is what KPMG predicted.

Parexel Completes Chinese Bridging Study

According to this article in Clinical Trials Today, the contract research organization Parexel has completed a Chinese bridging study to be conducted outside of China at their Los Angeles facility. Parexel recently acquired California Clinical Trials (CCT), which does a number of ethnobridging studies.

Michelle Middle, corporate vice president and worldwide head of Clinical Pharmacology at Parexel mentions:

“The goal of Parexel clinical pharmacology is to help sponsors to get as much information as soon as possible in drug development.”

Briding studies have grown increasingly important to clinical research, as more and more companies are looking to cut back on costs.

CROs Under Fire

This article on Bio Health Investor discusses how although CROs experienced rapid growth up until August this year, it seems as if the trend is coming to a crashing halt. Apparently CROs are not immune to the global economic crisis; Charles River Laboratories have even reported that it is cutting its guidance for 2008.

Now there is even a concern for the amount of jobs that will be available in the CRO sector. CRO stocks have been performing horrible as of lately. Time will only tell what the future lies in store for the medical industry.

CRO BioReliance Enters Tech-Development

From Proteo Monitor:

Contract research organization BioReliance this month launched a new array service for the screening of non-human antigens in animal serum, the first fruit of a new technology-development strategy the company embarked upon after being sold by Invitrogen last year

The array platform, called ReliArray, currently in beta testing and available only to select customers, will formally debut in January, replacing the ELISA technology currently being used by BioReliance for serological testing.

Read the rest of this article here.

India's clinical trials not affected by the recession

Last week, we wrote about the opportunity that the global recession is presenting to India and their clinical trials.

While the cost of clinical trials vary on the basis of complexity and disease segment, a simple trial in India can cost 15-20% of the US price, while a more sophisticated trial—involving imaging systems—may be 50-60% of the US price. Studies suggest that R&D expenditure is increasing by 15% per year, making global biopharmaceutical companies look for cheaper options. India scores high due to faster enrollments, speed of completion, large and diverse patient pool as well as increasing private healthcare network.

The Economic Times takes a deeper look into this belief. Read more here.

MarketWatch: Quintiles, SAS Announce Development of First-Ever Clinical Trials Statistical Programming Certification

Quintiles, SAS Announce Development of First-Ever Clinical Trials Statistical Programming Certification

From MarketWatch:

Quintiles, the world's No. 1 pharmaceutical services company, and SAS are developing a unique program to produce certified specialists in the use of SAS programming to evaluate clinical trials results, the companies announced today.
The Quintiles-SAS Clinical Trials Statistical Programming Certification will certify that the successful candidate has shown that he or she has the expertise necessary to organize, analyze, and report clinical trials results. Incorporating industry-specific data, language and concepts, SAS and Quintiles will develop an exam and related training materials that emphasize the SAS skills statistical programmers need in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries.
"We're responding to a customer need through this collaboration with Quintiles," said Herbert Kirk, Vice President, SAS Education Division. "The pharma and biotech industries have statistical requirements that our standard certification exams don't measure. With this new certification, our pharma customers can hire people with confidence."

For more information, please click here.

Biotrial, Full-Service CRO and European Leader in Drug Evaluation and Pharmacology Research, Appoints New Head to Manage its Growing Data Management

From PRWEB:

Biotrial, a leading CRO for early phase clinical trials, today announced that Monique Duguépéroux-Klocke has joined the company as its new Head of Data Management.
Rennes, France (PRWEB) November 15, 2008 -- Since 1989 Biotrial has provided consistent and reliable clinical data management for in-house clinical trials, as well as complex global clinical studies. From CRF design, data entry, database design, data validation, statistics and consulting, to name a few, Biotrial's experience includes a wide range of therapeutic areas.
Monique Duguépéroux-Klocke brings over 15 years of experience in the field of clinical research. After leaving a well-known CRO (PAREXEL in Berlin) she worked for over 10 years at one of the top French pharmaceutical companies: Servier Laboratories, as head of the Data Management, Outsourcing Department.
"We are really excited about these new changes in Biotrial's Data Management department," said Isabelle Cimarosti, Director of Biometrics Department. "Monique Duguépéroux-Klocke's arrival attests to our growth and reinforces our position as a global service provider."

To read the rest of this article, click here.