Icon Laboratories Inc has invested $1 million to set up a central lab in India. The lab will be the Asia hub for the company to provide the services during its multi-centric global trial assignments for its sponsors.
The central lab located in Bangalore spans an area of 14,000 sq ft. The lab is the third largest facility for Icon after its new locations at Farmingdale, New York and Dublin in Ireland. Its lab at Singapore will now look at the Indian facility to carry out the tests. Bangalore is the third facility for Icon in the country after Chennai which is a dedicated data management centre and New Delhi where its branch office is located.
This central lab is currently in the process of receiving CAP (College of American Pathologists) recognition and National Accreditation for Lab Testing accreditation. It will carry out the test of samples which have been airlifted from across the world. The reason to shortlist India was not just the economies of scale resulting in a 60 per cent lower cost for conduct of tests from here, but the availability of medical doctors and qualified personnel who could carry out the operations adhering to quality norms at a faster pace, stated , stated Robert Scott Edwards, president, Icon Laboratories Inc.
There will be a comprehensive centralized global service of data from locally performed tests. The Indian lab will adhere to the standard platforms in US, Europe and Asia to support the global needs. In addition to the central lab capabilities, it will also offer a customized package of project management, investigator support, logistics and data services to support each study.
The Indian operations has 400 people, of which 20 are for the central lab. The remaining constitutes the data management and clinical research monitoring team.
From India, the central lab will undertake tests for diabetes, cardiovascular, Cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, and ant infective. India has become a key region for global clinical trials which has boosted the demand for local lab testing within a global laboratory network, he added.
The Icon Central Laboratories in India is headed by Dr Anuradha Rajput as the general manager. Icon has 85 per cent of business generated from the pharma companies and the remaining 15 per cent is from the clinical research organizations. The company which started the central lab in 1990 has currently 90 clients and 12 from CRO space.
With quality of the tests being a critical component of the service, Icon will carry out extensive training for its Indian team. There is also an online training programme known as 'ilearn' and regular competency tests conducted for all lab personnel. These internal practices will ensure adherence to ICH/GCP guidelines in a stringent manner. In addition, Icon has developed a technical capability in Flow Cytometry services which will help generate a singe test result database that can be used for the statistical analysis and regulatory submission. This approach optimizes highest quality, consistency and efficiency analysis, added president, Icon laboratories.
Icon Laboratories which generated revenues to the tune of $50 million in 2007 is expected to close at $70 million and by 2010, it will be a $100 million company with Indian business contributing substantially to its revenues.
Right now among the existing central labs of CROs in the international arena, Icon is ranked fifth after Covance, Quintiles, MDS, Lab Corporation and Quest. There are 12 central labs globally and setting up one is beginning to be a trend in the clinical trial business.