CRO Company Adds Anatomic Pathology Testing Services to Serve China’s Pharma and Biotech Industries
Quintiles announced that its Beijing medical laboratory will offer an enhanced menu of anatomic pathology testing services to the Chinese biopharmaceutical industry. With this action, global CRO (clinical research organization) giant Quintiles is responding to the increasing sophistication of the pharmaceutical industry in the world’s most populous country.
Quintiles says the new service will help biopharma firms develop more effective cancer treatments. The lab also offers pathology assay development, digital pathology, and core lab test offerings that help customers comply with China’s restrictions on tissue import/export.
“Within China, we are providing the tools and infrastructure to investigate cancer and match patients with optimum treatments for their genetic makeup,” said Christopher Ung, Vice President Strategic Business and Operations, Oncology for Quintiles. “These capabilities enable personalized medicine and enhance oncology research to bring medicines to market faster.”
Within the company’s testing laboratories in China, Scotland and the United States, Quintiles routinely performs Immunohistochemistry (IHC) and Fluorescence In Situ Hybridization (FISH) testing. In addition, Quintiles’ biomarker tests—such as PI3K, PTEN, HER2, EGFR and MET—are used to target genes that affect cancer cell growth and mutation. Quintiles is the only CRO laboratory that has validated numerous assays for PI3K, including PI3K amplification, PI3K mutational analysis, PTEN IHC and others.
Quintiles has operated the Beijing medical laboratory, and another clinical laboratory in Singapore, for 10 years. It offers services that include monitoring Phase II-IV clinical trials for therapeutic drugs under development. It also markets and sells drugs in major therapeutic fields. Like the Quintile labs in Argentina, Brazil, India, Japan, Singapore, Scotland, South Africa and the United States, Quintile’s Beijing pathology laboratory is accredited by the College of American Pathologists (CAP).
Quintiles is a world leader in clinical research services and consulting and marketing services for pharmaceutical companies, with more than $2 billion in annual revenue and 23,000 professional employees world wide.
Quintile’s decision to beef up pathology testing of tissue and cancer in its Beijing laboratory reflects steady advances in the capability, size, and scope of therapeutic drug development in China. As new therapeutic drugs for cancer and other diseases are approved for clinical use in China, this is likely to fuel increased demand for pathology testing, including companion diagnostics. By the use of digital pathology, this increased demand for pathology expertise may create an opportunity for specialist pathologists in the United States to provide second opinions and consult on cases that originate within China. –K. Branz
Related Information:
Quintiles Adds Tissue Testing Services in China
Quintiles Launches New Tissue Testing Services In China To Help In Fight Against Cancer
