Averion ventures into Brazil
trial hotspot Brazil - as it continues to tip-toe beyond North
America and Europe into emerging markets.
The contract research organization (CRO) has joined forces with Biocancer, a CRO based in Belo Horizonte, Brazil's third largest city, and together the firms will "market and contract complementary services". Biocancer's focus is in the area of oncology, as is Averion's, and the US firm has been making efforts to build its international oncology offerings of late. The company also has an expertise in the areas of dermatology, nephrology and medical devices. "This agreement expands our reach to South America, providing us with access to leading clinical sites and large patient populations," said Philip Lavin, CEO of Averion. Gene Resnick, Averion's chief medical officer added: "As we help our clients plan and implement global development for new oncology agents, this alliance allows us to expand our sponsors' cost-effective access…and access common as well as rare forms of cancer." Indeed, Brazil, with a population of 180m who display both 'western' and third world diseases, is the dominant country for generating Western clinical trial interest (along with Argentina) and figures provided by Dr Granville Garcia de Oliveira, a representative from the Brazillian regulatory authority, ANVISA, showed that 923 clinical trial applications (CTAs) and 56 new drug applications (NDAs) trials were approved there in 2006. Averion currently has US offices in Massachusettes, New York, Philadelphia, San Diego, as well as European offices in Germany, United Kingdom, Austria and operations in Poland, however, as is the increasing trend within the clinical trials industry, the company has been exploring its options in emerging regions of late. "We plan to continue building on our international oncology CRO offering through strategic partnerships and acquisitions," said Lavin. In February the firm made its first foray India, signing a non-exclusive agreement with another oncology-focused CRO, Apothecaries, based in New Delhi. The arrangement between these two firms gave Averion new access to this potentially lucrative market region and is similar to the partnership the firm has just formed in Brazil.
