Quintiles, Apollo launch clinical trials unit in Hyderabad
By IANSMonday, January 24, 2011
HYDERABAD - US-based Quintiles, a global provider of clinical trials, Monday opened a research facility here in partnership with Apollo Hospitals Group, India’s top listed hospital chain.
Quintiles Phase One Clinical Trials India Private Limited has come up at Apollo Health City here with an investment of Rs.40 crore. While Quintiles has 60 percent equity, Apollo owns the rest.
Dennis Gillings, chairman and managing director of Quintiles, told reporters this would be the company’s fourth such facility in the world. It already has such facilities in the US, the UK and Sweden.
“The new facility will complement Quintiles’ existing phase-I facilities around the globe to help customers navigate complex early development challenges and make key decisions early. It will provide biopharma customers additional options to complete integrated phase-I programs across multiple geographies at this pivotal stage in medical research,” said Dennis.
The 86-bed unit will evaluate compounds developed both in India and in other countries. Data captured will be linked electronically to other phase-I units of Quintiles in the world.
“With this state-of-the-art facility, we will be able to better ally with customers by providing access to large number of healthy volunteers for simple studies, parallel to more complex studies conducted by scientific experts in Europe and the US,” he said.
With its presence in India for 14 years, Quintiles already has operations in Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Delhi and Mumbai. It employs 1,400 people in India, which accounts for six percent of its global trials.
Quintiles is the largest company of biopharma outsourcing service industry in the world. It posted net revenues of $3 billion during 2009 and has 20,000 professionals in 60 countries.
“We are excited to be working with Quintiles to deliver high quality phase-I studies for international customers in India. Apollo has pioneered the provision of many medical and surgical procedures in India and our mission is to bring healthcare of international standards within the reach of every individual,” Apollo Hospitals Group’s executive director Shobana Kamineni said.
