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Quintiles to enter new areas of activity in India
By agencies
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Tuesday, 12 April 2005, 19:30 IST
BANGALORE: Clinical research services provider Quintiles Transnational Corp is looking at ramping up its India operations by entering new areas of activity as well as by raising staff numbers.
Dennis Gillings, Chairman and CEO of the U.S. based Quintiles, who announced the opening of the Quintiles Data Management Center here said Quintiles was exploring setting up a PharmaBio Development arm in India after starting the activity in the U.S., the U.K., Japan and Singapore. In the U.S., Quintiles has committed $1 billion for this area of activity.
The India operations currently contribute about one percent of Quintiles' revenue (which was $1.78 billion for the year 2004), Gillings said.
He hoped this would reach 5 percent in the coming years, riding on the high-growth environment that domestic biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies are seeing.
Operating out of Ahmedabad, Mumbai and Bangalore centers, Quintiles currently employs 850 people, mainly pharmacologists, medical and bioscience professionals. The Bangalore data management facility alone employs some 200 people.
Trials in India cost 50-70 percent of the U.S. cost, which could range $1 million-20 million per drug under test.
In India, Quintiles works with 15 of the top 20 pharmaceutical companies; conducted 90 trials involving 13,000 patients and in cardiovascular areas, cancer, diabetes, psychiatric and infectious diseases.