The academy, which is being set up in partnership with the National University of Singapore NUS), will offer a number of professional training programmes for clinical research associates, study co-ordinators, nurses and other staff involved in trials.
The emphasis will be on teaching students how to conduct clinical trials that are in accordance with International Conference on Harmonization-Good Clinical Practice (ICH-GCP) standards, which is an approach used at Parexel's other training academy in Berlin, Germany.
Singapore is fast becoming a hub for clinical research, playing host to the most trials in Asia by head of population between 2006 and 2009 according to data from clinicatrials.gov.
This rapid growth has been driven by both drug industry demand – pharmas want to conduct trials in Asia to access new markets – and the recent influx of contract research organisations (CRO) and service providers into the country.
In the few years CROs like Parexel, PPD, Clintec International, Chiltern International and inVentiv Health have all moved to build the presences in the country, while logistics giant World Courier has started work on a dedicated clinical trial supply distribution centre.
Demand for CRAs
However, while this influx for foreign expertise has helped Singapore's trial infrastructure to develop rapidly, it has left the island with a talent shortfall - namely a lack of appropriately trained research staff.
The Government first moved to address this in 2010 when it launched two certification courses - focused on everything from patient recruitment to protocol development - in a moved designed to broaden and deepen SIingapore's clinical research talent pool.
But despite this effort there is still a demand for properly trained clinical research staff, which was a key factor in Parexel’s decision to establish the new academy according to Albert Siu, VP of learning and development.
"The Academy's location in Singapore provides students with access to a significant business centre for the Asia-Pacific region, and supports regional growth in the clinical development field.”
This was echoed by Chan Sui Yung, head of NUS’ department of pharmacy, who described the partnership as a “timely initiative to equip clinical development professionals with critical skills to effectively and efficiently translate research from the laboratory into clinical studies, and ultimately to bring significant life-saving treatments to patients in Asia and around the world.”