CRO

Quintiles homes in on Asian biotech with its latest offering

Quintiles ($Q), the world's largest CRO, is targeting the growing number of small and midsize biotech companies in Asia, porting its bespoke offering to the region in hopes of partnering with the continent's up-and-coming drug developers.

The CRO's latest effort bundles project management, patient recruitment and operational models in a service tailored for emerging biopharmas in Asia, the company said. The platform is similar to what Quintiles offers biotech companies in the West--bolstered by its 2013 acquisition of the emerging-drugmaker-focused Novella Clinical--and takes advantage of the CRO's wide footprint in Asia.

"Asia-Pacific is poised to become the world's next biopharma powerhouse, not least because of its growing number of emerging companies with promising pipelines," Quintiles Senior Vice President Dr. Ross Horsburgh said in a statement. "These companies face formidable challenges as they look to expand into markets or therapeutic areas in which they may have limited or no experience."

The idea, Quintiles said, is to bring together all the capacity that has made it a go-to partner for Asian pharma and scale it down for smaller companies.

Meanwhile, Quintiles is angling for between 7% and 8% annual revenue growth in 2015, shooting for about $4.5 billion in sales. The CRO dialed back its projections last quarter to account for a strong dollar and an unforeseen jump in cancellations, but the company is counting on its sizable backlog to balance things out as the year goes on.

- read the statement