Quintiles Increases Capacity To Manage Clinical Studies For Diseases Including Malaria, HIV And Tuberculosis

Main Category: Tuberculosis
Also Included In: Tropical Diseases;  HIV / AIDS
Article Date: 18 Jun 2009 - 0:00 PDT

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To improve efficiency and expand capacity to monitor the growing number of clinical studies being conducted in Western Sub-Saharan Africa, Quintiles today announced the opening of a new office in Accra, Ghana.

The opening of a Quintiles' office in Ghana, and the access it will provide to the surrounding West African countries, will immediately facilitate monitoring of a large malaria vaccine study now under way.

The new Ghana office is based at the grounds of the University of Ghana at the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research. In opening this new facility, Quintiles has worked with Professor Alex Nyarko, Ph.D., director of the institute. This collaboration will continue. In addition, Professor David Ofori-Adjei, a specialist physician at the institute who has more than 30 years' experience studying infectious diseases, has entered into a Partner-Site Agreement with Quintiles.

As part of the agreement with the institute, Quintiles will provide training for new investigators across a range of therapeutic areas, as well as training for clinical research associates (CRAs).

"This expansion offers huge potential to reach patients in Sub-Saharan Africa, which has an estimated population of 760 million people," said Gillian Corken, Chief Executive Officer, Quintiles Africa. "Initially the focus will be on diseases such as malaria, TB and HIV. However, we anticipate that as the infrastructure and economies in Africa develop, like many other non-traditional regions before, it will play an increasingly important role in recruiting patients for many other therapeutic areas, such as oncology and cardiovascular.

"Quintiles already has an established and successful operation in South Africa that provides a range of services including clinical operations, regulatory support, partner sites, data management, biostatistics and laboratory services, as well as commercial operations," explained Corken.

Professor Nyarko said, "We are excited to be working in partnership with a company such as Quintiles. We have the clinical expertise, infrastructure and resources to conduct clinical studies and to play our part in the development of new and better medicines. Working with Quintiles means we can learn and develop expertise in clinical research. We are already working with Quintiles on a landmark pediatric malaria study targeted to enroll more than 16,000 patients across seven Sub-Saharan countries."

In conducting studies in Africa, Quintiles adopts the same policies and procedures as employed in the entire 50-plus countries it operates in worldwide. Putting patients first is at the heart of everything Quintiles does. Regardless of country, Quintiles strictly adheres to ethical principles articulated by international guidelines such as ICH, the Declaration of Helsinki, CIOMS and The Belmont Report. In addition to following all international guidelines, Quintiles has developed its own extensive internal policies and procedures to safeguard patients.

Quintiles is the only fully integrated biopharmaceutical services company offering clinical, commercial, consulting and capital solutions worldwide. The Quintiles network of 23,000 engaged professionals in more than 50 countries around the globe works with an unwavering commitment to patients, safety and ethics. Quintiles helps biopharmaceutical companies navigate risk and seize opportunities in an environment where change is constant. For more information, please visit http://www.quintiles.com.

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Quintiles