The laboratory, set up earlier this year to house operations previously based in Saitama, received the designation after what SVP of global central labs Thomas Wollman said had been an extensive audit process.
Wollman told Outsourcing-pharma that: “The certification process is intended to improve patient safety by advancing the quality of pathology and laboratory services through education, setting standards and ensuring laboratories meet or exceed regulatory requirements.”
“College of American Pathologists (CAP) accreditation,” Wollman continued,” has become a global quality standard and is proof of good technical and management practice.”
He also suggested that accreditation will boost Quintiles’ lab business in Japan, explaining that since entering the market in 2008 in a deal with Medeca the industry has changed significantly.
“Japan is quickly becoming a key destination for biopharmaceutical development and innovation and we are seeing customer demand for our services continue to grow.”
Japan’s drug development growth
Wollman’s comments, and the upswing in demand for lab analysis services, are in keeping with the expansion seen in Japan’s clinical trials sector in recent years.
While in previous years the strict rules governing research in Japan put many drugmakers off conducting trials the country, in the last few years government measures designed to accelerate the process have changed the market.
Initially this resulted in a large number of international contract research organisations (CRO) forming partnerships with Japanese firms to access the market.
More recently however the focus has been on ancillary trial services and preclinical development. For example both Thermo Fisher Scientific and Lab Research have expanded their business in the country in recent months.