LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT
Having been in the industry for several decades, we
have seen the progress of the industry and been a part of its evolution. The
driver behind exponential growth of the European market is the increasing attractiveness
of Eastern Europe to drug developers in both the US and Western Europe. A number
of multi-centre clinical trials being carried out in the CEE region are growing
on average at an annual rate of 30 per cent.
Some areas significantly impacting the European CRO industry today include globalization,
the EU Clinical Trials Directive and EDC (electronic data capture). The EU Directive
continues to create a challenge for trials in Europe and has increased the regulatory
business for some of the big CRO's, adding another service for CRO's to provide
to clients. In addition, EDC is making headway as companies look to improve
the clinical trial process.
Partnerships with specialized CRO's in different regions always prove advantageous
as they operate globally and have first hand experience of dealing with regional
issues. As CRO's work internationally across different therapeutic areas and
on different types of products they can often gain ideas on new approaches to
important issues such as patient recruitment.
As these developments make way, we continue to look for opportunities to expand
the industry and tap new markets. Our combined relationship with AcuNova has
enabled us in tapping lucrative opportunities that prevail in countries like
India. ECRON AcuNova combines experts in the clinical research space with the
joint strength of two regional expert CRO's, from experienced geographies. The
new entity will continue to be lead by our 20 years experience in addition to
AcuNova being a reputed university CRO.
We believe this synergy will have a positive impact on the clinical research
space and on the clients of both the company's. We are able to strengthen our
expertise in clinical trials and data management from our Indian counterparts
with faster patient enrolment in clinical trials, timely database lock, high
quality early phase development as well as unique features like access to the
Central Lab for Clinical Trial Testing. These services bring speed to projects,
are of high quality and improve our competitiveness in Europe.
We look forward to our being your partner of choice and bringing value to the
services we offer.
Dr K D Wiedey
President
ECRON AcuNova, Europe