Spaulding Clinical Research, the US-based provider of clinical pharmacology and cardiac core-laboratory services that last month announced two partnerships to expand and globalise its research services offering, is extending its reach further east through an alliance with Frontage Laboratories.
Under the strategic partnership agreement, Spaulding will conduct all intense electrocardiographic (ECG) studies on behalf of Frontage at its US clinical pharmacology unit in West Bend, Wisconsin as well as providing ECG Core Lab services for its partner.
Frontage, a full-service clinical research organisation with facilities in the US and China, will in return offer bioanalytical method development and sample processing, formulation development and clinical trial product supplies on Spaulding’s behalf while serving as one of the clinical sites for Spaulding Clinical clients in China.
Frontage runs two Phase I clinical research units in China – in Zhengzhou, Henan Province and Changchun, Jilin Province respectively – in addition to its US Phase I facility in Hackensack, New Jersey. The company’s late-phase services are based both in Exton, US and in Beijing, China.
Step forward
Randy Spaulding, chief executive officer and founder of Spaulding Clinical, said the collaboration was “another step forward in meeting our strategic objectives of providing the highest quality global clinical development facilities to our clients interested in accelerating drug development. Together, Frontage and Spaulding Clinical will deliver the first US-based fully-automated Clinical Pharmacology unit in China”.
Last month Spaulding announced partnerships with Clinigene International, a Phase I-IV clinical research organisation based in Bangalore, India, and with France’s Eurofins Optimed Clinical Research.
Dr Jason Wu, senior vice president and general manager of Frontage Clinical Services, cited Spaulding’s expertise in cardiac safety, making the company “the perfect partner to complement our clinical offering in both the US and China”.
Frontage regards Spaulding’s iQ Electrocardiograph as “a key innovation that enables the centralisation of critical cardiac safety data in a cost-effective manner – a need many of our clients have identified”, Wu added.
Based in Exton, Pennsylvania, Frontage has made rapid headway over recent years in the Chinese market, where it established a subsidiary in Shanghai five years ago. As well as its Phase I units in Zhengzhou and Changchun, Frontage runs bioanalytical and CMC (chemistry, manufacturing and controls) facilities in Shanghai and Beijing respectively.
