Quintiles, the biopharmaceutical services company offering clinical, commercial, consulting and capital solutions worldwide, officially opened its new phase I research facility in Hyderabad at Apollo Health City. Constructed in partnership with Apollo Hospitals Group, the new facility will complement Quintiles existing phase I facilities around the globe to help customers navigate complex early development challenges and make key decisions early.

The new facility will provide biopharma customers additional options to complete integrated phase I programmes across multiple geographies at this pivotal stage in medical research.

According to Eddie Caffrey, senior vice president and head of Quintiles phase I global,  “Sponsors are under intense pressure to speed delivery of results, ethically, and without compromising patient safety or quality of data. With this new state-of-the-art phase I facility in Hyderabad, India, we will be better able to ally with customers by providing access to large numbers of healthy volunteers for simple studies, in parallel to more complex studies conducted by scientific experts in Europe and the US.”

The team in Hyderabad under leadership of Ashish Jain, who is the executive director, will work to global standards and procedures and will be connected to sites in London, Uppsala and Kansas through Quintiles global data network to simplify study management for sponsors and provide integrated information and perspective as early as possible in the development process.

The 86-bed unit will evaluate compounds developed both in India and in other countries. Data capture will be linked electronically to Quintiles other phase I units in UK, US, and Sweden. Thirty two beds are equipped with technically advanced diagnostic cardiology equipment for TQT studies.

“We are excited to be working with Quintiles to deliver high quality phase I studies for international customers in India. Apollo has pioneered the provision of many medical and surgical procedures in India and our mission is to bring healthcare of international standards to within the reach of every individual,” said Shobana Kamineni, executive director, Apollo Hospitals Group.

“With this new unit we are reinforcing India’s position as a key player in the global drug development market and expanding the options available to pharma sponsors,” she added.

In addition to this unique phase 1 facility, Quintiles also has offices in India, with existing operations in Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Delhi, and Mumbai. Expertise across the country covers a wide range of therapeutic areas, including leading physicians and experts in the areas of oncology, CNS, infectious disease, and cardiovascular disease.