US-based digital contract research organisation (dCRO) Clinipace Worldwide has widened its footprint in the key Asian market through a completed merger with pan-Asian CRO Choice Pharma.
No financial terms were disclosed for the transaction, which Clinipace says does not involve any planned redundancies or office closures. Rather, the combined organisation will continue to hire throughout the year.
Chris Wang, managing director of Choice Pharma, will continue in her role as managing director of Asian operations for the combined entity, which retains the Clinipace name.
Wang will have day-to-day operating responsibilities in Asia, reporting to Jeff Williams, chief executive officer of Clinipace Worldwide.
Fifth acquisition
This is Clinipace’s fifth acquisition in recent years. In September 2012 it mopped up the outstanding shares of fellow US-based CRO Paragon Biomedical and its subsidiaries.
That deal doubled the new owner’s size to more than 430 employees worldwide while expanding significantly Clinipace’s therapeutic scope, site-management capabilities, clinical operations and global footprint.
By merging with Hong Kong-based Choice Pharma, Clinipace now extends its global reach to 20 operational offices in 15 countries, including new offices in Taiwan, China, Hong Kong, South Korea, Vietnam, Singapore and Malaysia.
Clinipace Worldwide will maintain its global headquarters in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, with additional US operations in Irvine, California, Overland Park, Kansas and Boulder, Colorado.
Supplementing those are European operations in Zurich, Switzerland; Munich, Germany; and London, UK; an Asian presence in Taipei, Taiwan; Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, China; Seoul, South Korea; Hong Kong; Hanoi, Vietnam; Singapore; and Kuala Lumpur; Malaysia; South American operations in Sao Paulo, Brazil and Buenos Aires, Argentina; a Middle Eastern presence in Tel-Aviv Israel; and Indian operations in Trivandrum.
These combined resources add up to a “formidable global clinical-development service offering for the mid-market, along with a world-class product-development regulatory and Good Practice/Chemistry, Manufacturing, and Controls/Quality Assurance consultancy”, Clinipace said.
Purpose-built
Fielding more than 640 staff across over 30 countries, Clinipace Worldwide is “the only purpose-built CRO with deep therapeutic expertise and broad geographic capacity built on our proprietary technology-enabled service model”, Williams claimed.
The dCRO model delivers visibility and simplified study management through real-time performance metrics at a reduced cost to venture-based, mid-tier life-science firms around the world, he explained.
The future of clinical trials lies in a “streamlined, efficient operational approach with real-time transparency that reduces cost and budget volatility”, Wang commented.
“Not only can our clients leverage Clinipace’s dCRO delivery model but they now have access to a comprehensive and integrated clinical-operations data-management biostatistics and regulatory consultancy outside of Asia,” she noted.
