Quintiles KoNECT’s with South Korea’s trial sector
Under a memorandum of understanding announced late yesterday the US contract research organisation (CRO) will collaborate on a number of ‘educational events’ for trial investigators, government officials and biopharmaceutical firms.
MiSook Hyun, who heads Quintiles operations in South Korea, said: “With KoNECT we can further enhance the already high clinical research standards that exist here and expand its clinical research capacity.”
This was echoed by KoNECT President Sang-Goo Shin who said: “Together we hope to improve clinical research expertise and build a support infrastructure in Korea that’s second to none.”
KoNECT was established by the South Korean government in 2007 as a way of co-ordinating together academic, governmental and industrial efforts to develop the countries clinical trial infrastructure.
Quintiles, which has operated in South Korea for more than a decade, is not the only CRO to have shown a renewed interest in the country as a trial destination since KoNECT was launched.
For example, Parexel, Novotech, Siro Clinpharm and PRA have all begun conducting clinical research in South Korea in recent years.
Additionally, in April this year, Ireland-based CRO Icon said it had seen an uptick in demand from Japanese biopharma clients for clinical trials conducted in the Asia Pacific with South Korea being one of the areas of strongest growth.
This expansion is also reflected by data from the Clinicaltrials.gov website, which showed that Clinical trials initiated annually in South Korea increased by 150 per cent between 2006 and 2009.
