Quintiles opens office in Vietnam

Quintiles Transnational Corp. has extended its Asia operations with the opening of an office in Hanoi, Vietnam. The company now has clinical development offices in eight countries in East Asia, including China, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan and Thailand.

'Vietnam is an increasingly important market in the region, with its population of 80 million, a strong educational system and a robust healthcare industry,' said Michael Stibilj, executive director, clinical development services, Southeast Asia. In addition to its large population, Vietnam has an urban hospital infrastructure comparable to other Southeast Asian countries, doctors who have trained in Europe or the US, and tremendous motivation to participate in international clinical trials, he added.

Quintiles will also work closely with the Vietnam Ministry of Health to increase the number of sites trained in Good Clinical Practice, which are the regulatory standards designed to assure the accuracy of information obtained in clinical trials while protecting the rights and confidentiality of patients and other volunteers participating in the trials.

Since 1995 the Quintiles clinical team in Asia has completed more than 160 Phase II and III studies from 1,000 sites and recruited 35,000 patients into international clinical trials. Quintiles lab operations in Singapore and Beijing have serviced more than 200 studies with samples shipped in from 15 Asia Pacific countries, making Quintiles a leading pharmaceutical development provider in the region.