Trial Form Support to start operations in India

Trial Form Support (TFS), the €10 million Stockholm-based clinical contract research organisation, has decided to set up shop in India. Initially, TFS will move corporate functions like business development and finance to India before creating a research facility.

The company expects to have a firm foothold in the country by the end of the current calendar year.

Speaking to Business Standard, Daniel Spasic, chief executive officer of Trial Form Support, said, "The company is first looking at moving some corporate functions to India like business development and finance before setting up research functions in the country."

TFS will initially invest around €100,000 in India and is looking at hiring between 10 and 15 people for its Indian operations.

"Half of them would be into research and the other half will have a corporate function," he said.

Spasic said that TFS was also exploring a possible alliance or a joint venture with a local company in the area of contract research.

"The office is most likely to be set up in Mumbai. But we are also exploring setting up offices in Hyderabad and Bangalore," he added.

The company expects to shift around 10 to 15 per cent of its existing clinical trials to India to start with, and expects business worth €1.5 million to be done in India during the current calendar year.

TFS, which currently has 120 employees in its nine offices across seven European countries, expects to increase it to 500 in the next four-five years.

TFS, which follows a January to December financial year, expects its sales to increase by around 30 per cent to touch €13 million by the end of the current financial year.