The company already maintains a strong presence across the region after forming strategic alliances with Taiwanese CRO, Virginia Contract Research, and South Korea-based clinical trials specialist, DreamCIS, in 2010.
Anjit Nair, SIRO’s vice president of clinical operations in Asia, explained the reasons behind the move.
“Besides advantages common to other Asian countries, what attracted us to Malaysia was a robust regulatory framework with complaint timelines strong government commitment towards clinical research and modern medical facilities.”
Highly developed
Rajenedra Talele, vice president of clinical operations in Asia, said SIRO had big plans to make the most of rapid growth in the region.
“Malaysia is a highly developed and fast growing clinical trials destination and we are extremely proud to be one of the first India headquartered CROs to announce its operations.”
He went on to reveal that the company’s first phase of service offerings will include clinical monitoring and project management activities.
Additional geography
Commenting on the announcement, Chetan Tamhankar, SIRO’s CEO, said the company had plans to expand into other Asian countries, and were already sizing up potential destinations.
“This expansion in Asia gives us an opportunity to immediately offer and additional geography to conduct clinical trials to our existing as well as potential clients,” he said.
“From a futuristic expansion perspective, we are in the process of evaluating the Philippines and Thailand amongst other Asian countries.”
Potential partnership
Early in 2010 SIRO Clinpharm entered into talks with Indian healthcare company, Biocon over a potential partnership centred on Biocon’s Clingene contract research services business. However, Biocon backed out of talks later that year before an agreement could be reached.
SIRO Clinpharm has since expanded its operations across Europe, forming partnerships with UK regulatory affairs specialist, CambReg, and French early-stage contract drug development group, Mediscis Medical Science Services.