Two Canadian contract research organisations, ASKA Research and Clinical Development Solutions (CDS), have formed a strategic partnership to bolster their respective offerings in clinical trial management, data management and consulting services.
Under the partnership agreement, the two CROs will provide services to each another, giving clients wider access to “the expertise required to reduce their time-to-market and product development costs”, they noted.
Val Willetts, founder and chief executive officer of ASKA, highlighted the combination of CDS’s “entrepreneurial approach and focused network” with ASKA’s own network of more than 250 clinical research professionals – “a unique organisation in Canada offering a full scope of clinical research expertise and services”.
That would enable ASKA to beef up its offering to pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device companies without increasing the size of its internal teams or facilities, Willetts added.
With headquarters in Vancouver, ASKA Research is one of the few privately held CROs based in Canada. It provides quality management, education/training and functionally outsourced clinical trial management services across Canada and the US. ASKA has also forged strategic alliances with CROs in Europe, Japan and Asia.
CDS operates out of Winnipeg and is a division of Genesys Venture, the biotech incubator founded by entrepreneur Dr Albert Friesen. It offers a range of services, from clinical project management and monitoring to regulatory affairs and quality assurance, with a particular emphasis on cardiovascular and metabolic disease.
