Novotech, the largest biotech CRO in Asia Pacific, says the region has had a record year for clinical trials in terms of the numbers of studies, experienced world-class sites and investigators, and patient enrollment.
Novotech released its ‘Asia-Pacific Industry Highlights 2019-2020’ during the annual JP Morgan Healthcare Conference (Jan 7-10) in San Francisco, as part of its biotech industry briefing on the benefits of conducting clinical research in Asia-Pacific.
The briefing covered:
– Asia’s vast patient pools,
– High-quality infrastructure,
– Lower trial concentration,
– Comparable quality and lower costs,
– Key destination for biotech companies for later phase trials.
Novotech also spoke about the benefits of running trials with regional CRO partners in the context of multi-region trials.
Novotech CRO’s Dr John Moller said:
“Asia-Pacific is now recognised by clinical phase biotech companies for accelerated patient enrollment – especially in rare diseases, metabolic conditions, oncology, immuno-oncology and infectious diseases – and lower clinical research costs, with some of the most experienced investigators and research teams.
“Biotech clinical research has been increasing globally by roughly 10% per year, but in the Asia-Pacific region increased by over 25% in 2019. This follows news from Australia that most clinical phase biotechs would be eligible for a 40%+ cash rebate on clinical research spend, preserved as an incentive for conducting clinical research in Australia.
“We have seen small to mid-size biotechs increasingly looking to partner with CROs of a similar size and mindset. We also found the region focused on more efficient registration and approval processes with significant 2019 improvements in China and South Korea. We are ensuring our clients understand these changes which can save them valuable time and funds.
“Novotech expanded to meet growing demand, increasing staff by 20% in 2019 and announcing a strategic partnership with PPC Group. The partnership creates the largest specialist biotech CRO group in Asia-Pacific, and brings together 1,200 staff with significant scale and synergies across countries, research institutions, trial phases, therapeutic areas and functional specialities.
“Novotech clients now have access to more than 350 clinical and operations staff across 28 cities in mainland China.”
About Novotech
Novotech, the Frost & Sullivan Asia-Pacific Biotech CRO of the Year the past 5 years, is internationally recognized as the leading Asia-Pacific full-service CRO. Established more than 20 years ago, Novotech now has 13 offices across 11 countries in APAC, and has been instrumental in the success of hundreds of Phase I-IV clinical trials in the region.
Novotech provides clinical development services across all clinical trial phases and therapeutic areas including: feasibility assessments; ethics committee and regulatory submissions, data management, statistical analysis, safety services, central lab services, report write-up to ICH requirements, project and vendor management.
About PPC
PPC Group, a full-service CRO founded in 1997, offers clinical research services, laboratory and site management. PPC Group has over 600 employees, with headquarters in Shanghai and 11 offices across China, Taiwan, Japan and South Korea. PPC manages 4 Phase I Clinical Pharmacology Units, 3 Bioanalytical Labs, and a Central Laboratory.
PPC has supported more than 350 customers, performing over 500 Phase I-IV clinical trials and over 1500 generic drug bioequivalence studies. PPC is the first CRO in Asia to have undergone inspections by all major international regulatory agencies (US FDA, EU EMA, Japan’s PMDA and China’s NMPA), each resulting in successful client product registration.
