Still in the mood of expansion, Swiss CRO PSI has opened an office in Taipei, making it its third new establishment set up this year in the Asia-Pacific region.
This follows hard on the heels of the CRO’s new business launch in Seoul just a few days ago, and another one earlier in Sydney; and it doesn't plan to stop there. PSI will open an office in Hong Kong in 2018, as additional offices are being planned, Kayt Leonard, a media aide with the company told FierceCRO. After these recent expansions, PSI is now operating on five continents.
The Taipei expansion, according to the station’s clinical operations manager, Ava Lu, is mainly driven by clinical trial requests from global sponsors in oncology, infections and inflammatory bowel diseases. The Seoul office was formed based on requests from gastroenterology, multiple sclerosis and rare diseases, in addition to all the indications for Taipei, said Eun-Kyoung Oh, PSI’s clinical operations manager in Seoul, back in early September.
PSI staffs all of its offices with key contributors representing each departmental area, and it will follow that strategy at its Taipei office, Leonard said.
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PSI’s decision to quickly expand into the Asia-Pacific region might have come after careful examination. An earlier report by Frost & Sullivan predicts that the CRO market there will grow at a fast compound annual growth rate of nearly 20% by 2020. A large patient base, worldwide data acceptability and low costs are three main attributes analysts believe will help boost the region’s CRO sector.
In the meantime, for PSI, a wider geographic reach would also mean more resources when it comes to helping its clients file for approvals in the region, saving time and costs for supplemental bridging studies. Not to mention that the biopharma businesses in the region as a whole is also experiencing impressive growth, driven primarily by the Chinese market.