The network, launched yesterday with the announcement of a first partnership with Argentina based ActivaCro, is part of an effort to expand inVentiv’s global reach and boost efficiency through collaboration.
Hlinak told Outsourcing-Pharma that the idea “is to provide an integrated, responsive global network offering clinical research services outside the US.
“Members will have passed quality assessments and will usually provide equity or other provisions in the alliance agreement to ensure inVentiv Clinical Solutions of a long term, meaningful collaboration.”
Hlinak said that ActivaCro, a contract research organisation (CRO) that has operations in Buenos Aires as well as Chile, Uruguay and Mexico, “boasts an impressive track record of quality clinical trial execution.”
In a press statement, ActivaCro director Mario Boskis praised inVentiv as a leader in clinical outsourcing and added that his firm’s business will benefit from the US company’s existing client base.
Rapid access
Improving patient access by expansion is common strategy in the CRO sector, with South America emerging as one of the hot destinations for growth along with Asia -Pacific and, more recently, Central and Eastern Europe.
And, although inVentiv already has its own regional offices in India, Brazil, Taiwan and Spain, its new partnership approach to expansion has a number of advantages over going it alone as Hlinak explained.
“Taking an integrated alliance approach offers rapid access to these [emerging] markets and brings immediate credibility and a history of performance.
“The alternative start-up approach would require excessive time and would require investments that would not be consistent with the competitive value-driven pricing.”
He went on to say that the firm plans to form partnerships in both Eastern and Western Europe and, long-term, hopes to capitalize on its presence in India and Taiwan to developer a broader Asia-Pacific capability for trials.