PRA Int to up cure portfolio

PRA International Inc, a clinical research organisation (CRO), which established its presence in India with the acquisition of Sterling Synergy Systems in May this year, is looking at expanding its disease portfolio to cover infectious disease, respiratory and cardiovascular besides the oncology and neurology clinical research that Sterling was previously focused on.

Conducting on an average 500 trials at various stages, the company is also looking at India as an important destination for contributing to its global trials.

"Presently, the US contributes to a third of our clinical trials, the UK one-third and the emerging economies put together also one- third. In this segment of the emerging economies, we expect India to play a greater role contributing to at least 15 per cent of our trials," said Greg Jhonson, vice-president, PRA International.

"For diseases like Malaria, it is difficult to get patients for clinical trials in the US, as such we expect India to contribute to at least 50 per cent of the patients for the clinical trial," he said.

Spread across Mumbai and Pune, Sterling Synergy, a wholly-owned subsidiary will undergo a name change to PRA India later this year. Speaking of his plans for India,

Jhonson said, "The company will maintain clinical operations in Mumbai and establish a data management centre in Pune."

The company has already tied up with 30 hospitals for clinical trials in cities like Hyderabad, Lucknow, Trichur, Chandigarh and Pune besides Mumbai. "We are in talks with over a dozen sponsors who are interested in India and expect to have at least 10 projects here," said Nermeen Varawalla, vice-president, corporate development, PRA International.

It is also looking at the data management centre to be an important part of its round-the-clock service model.

"Presently, we have 320 people spread across our four data management centres, of which Pune has only seven. Going forward, we will grow the Pune centre as the other centres have reached a maturity level with 70-100 employees each," he said.

According to industry sources, CRO globally is a $10-billion market while outsourced CRO is a $1-billion market growing at 8-10 per cent per annum. CRO was a $100 million market in India in 2004 growing at a compounded annual growth rate of 30 per cent.