Quintiles, UMMC in First Asian Prime Site Pact

Quintiles has formed a strategic alliance agreement with the University Malaya Medical Centre (UMMC) as part of its unique Prime Site program, an initiative focused on accelerating the development of new and more effective medicines. The UMMC is the first Prime Site in Asia for Quintiles, adding to its existing four other sites located in the U.S., Europe and Africa. Prime Sites are large clinical institutions that collaborate with Quintiles to enhance their infrastructure for conducting clinical trials.

Quintiles chief medical and scientific officer Christopher Cabell M.D. remarked, “UMMC is an ideal partner for us because of its experience in conducting clinical research, its access to substantial patient populations and its clinical expertise across multiple therapeutic areas. Through this new alliance, Quintiles will be able to significantly improve its reach to patients and investigators who are critical to facilitating the increasingly complex therapies under development.”

Anand Tharmaratnam, M.D., senior vice president and head of Clinical Development for Quintiles Asia-Pacific, added, “Malaysia is an increasingly important player in Asia-Pacific clinical drug development and the commitment of its government, academic and private industry leaders to promoting leading-edge clinical research in the country is undeniable. This, coupled with the highly skilled clinical workforce, strong clinical research infrastructure and large potential patient populations makes Malaysia and UMMC a quality fit as our first Prime Site in Asia. With the enthusiasm and vision for this model that our UMMC partner has shown, we are confident that this will serve as a strong foundation for our Prime Site program in Asia.”

Quintiles opened its first office in the region in 1993 and now has more than 20 offices in 14 countries throughout the region, with its regional headquarters in Singapore.

Read Dr. Tharmaratnam’s article Realizing the Promise of Asia-Pacific in the June 2010 issue of Contract Pharma!