The company, which has a presence in more than 20 countries worldwide, announced the establishment of a subsidiary in Milan, Italy, which will be headed by Verónica de Lázaro. De Lázaro brings to Italy experience from successfully managing the company's Spanish operations. In addition to the space in Italy, and in line with the strategic plans for growth throughout Europe, a new subsidiary in Lyon, France, is also slated to open early this fall.
The expansions come more than three years after the company opened another subsidiary in England, as well as similar subsidiaries in Russia and the Czech Republic.
Ivana Waller, COO of Accovion, said: "In addition to further strengthening our local presence in Western Europe, we will focus on future growth in Eastern Europe.”
To help facilitate that growth, Accovion named Łukasz Sobiak as the Regional Director of Clinical Operations for Eastern and South-Eastern Europe as well as the Country Director of Accovion Poland. “Dr. Sobiak's responsibilities will include further development of Accovion's capabilities in Eastern Europe, including Ukraine and the Baltic region," Waller said.
Back-End Services
In parallel to its international strategy, Accovion recently re-adjusted its German back-end service capacities. This streamlining effort helps to improve Accovion's overall resource utilization and increases its agility.
"All the forward-focused, dynamic actions undertaken this year put us in a strong position to become the market leader amongst independent European CROs. We aim to offer our clients a broad spectrum of country-specific clinical research expertise providing the high quality front-end and back-end services that Accovion is known for," said Andree Beckerling, the CEO of Accovion.
Formed in 2002, the Frankfurt-based company was created via clinical research, pharmacovigilance and medical writing assets at Aventis.