With Asia continuing to provide fresh sources of business growth, investment capital, patient recruitment and R&D capabilities for the biopharmaceutical industry, Quintiles has launched two new services to help clients navigate the complexities of developing and commercialising drugs in the region.
Headed by chief medical officer Amar Kureishi, Quintiles’ Strategic Drug Development organisation will assist biopharma companies with designing and implementing drug development strategies that “take into account the Asia product commercialisation opportunity and regulatory hurdles in advance of the standardised development process”, explained the US-based biopharmaceutical services specialist.
As Kureishi pointed out, Quintiles’ “world-class” team had already worked with customers on more than 15 projects in this field prior to the formal launch of the service. The aim, he noted, is not just to help clients meet their needs in Asia but to “help define them”.
To that end, the company has also launched a Consulting at Quintiles practice in Asia that will ease customers through the ‘New Health’ landscape by linking up business strategy, industry expertise and data-driven insights in six practice areas: product development and commercialisation; market access; regulatory and quality; market intelligence; late phase; and IT strategy and implementation).
Transformational change
The overarching goal is to deliver “transformational change”. According to Quintiles, its “unique” amalgamation of strategy and operations across regulatory, clinical and commercial functions “serves an unmet demand for comprehensive guidance on how to release the latent value locked in Asian assets and markets”.
The consulting services include a Health Technology Assessment platform that uses social networking techniques to anticipate shifts in global market access; and the Quintiles Market Accelerator end-to-end solution for transposing local drugs to global markets.
“Drug development and commercialisation in Asia will benefit greatly from new, strategic approaches,” commented Christian Gabel, vice president and head of Consulting at Quintiles Asia.
“Quintiles draws on expertise and lessons learned from 30 years of product development and commercialisation in the West to bring differentiated approaches to companies in the East.”
White paper
The need for new strategic approaches was similarly emphasised by Kureishi in a March 2011 white paper for Quintiles, Asia: A New Frontier in Strategic Drug Development.
Kureishi argued that industry would have to ditch its faltering linear model of drug discovery and development, and move towards a ‘wheel-and-spoke’ approach with multiple strategic partnerships, if it was to capitalise fully on R&D opportunities in the Asia region.
