Indian happi-Ness from Quintiles contract
multi-million dollar outsourcing contract to the Indian IT services
firm.
Under the initial three year deal, Ness will establish for Quintiles an Extended Development and Testing Centre (EDC) at its existing facility in Bangalore, India.
The purpose of the new Quintiles EDC is to accelerate the technology and data integration services provided by the contract research organisation (CRO) by adding additional application development, testing and maintenance capabilities in the clinical, laboratory and product commercialisation areas.
"Through this partnership, Ness will provide us with significant additional IT capacity and expertise, which in turn will help us accelerate delivery of services to our customers," said Richard Thomas, chief technology officer of Quintiles.
Following the success of the three year partnership, the contract may be extended for a further three years, said the firm.
Quintiles has been stepping up its presence in the major clinical trials recruitment hubs in Asia of late, particularly in India.
It has already established itself as the largest CRO in the country, with 675 employees in offices in Bangalore, Mumbai and Ahmedabad and recently announced its intention to open a central lab in India to help feed its expanding network of clinical trial operations in the country.
The new lab will be one of only a few global central laboratories operating in India and Quintiles is hoping to use this competitive advantage to lure more of its clients to conduct trials in the budding region.
"For Quintiles, this allows us to further maximise our global reach while minimising our customers' shipping costs," Alan Ong, vice president and general manager, Quintiles Labs Asia said at the time.
The Indian central laboratory, to be based in Mumbai, will add to existing central labs Quintiles already has in China and Singapore covering the Asia Pacific region and is expected to be equipped and staffed ready to support new trials in the first quarter of this year.
