Synexus, the world’s leading organisation dedicated to the recruitment and running of clinical trials, is getting ready for a new phase of sustained growth. As part of this drive it has today announced changes to its executive management team with the appointment of Dr Christophe Berthoux as Chief Executive. His appointment will be effective from 12^th September. Dr Berthoux was EVP Global Sales & Marketing and Chief Commercial Officer at Charles River, where he created a new global organisational structure across the company and was responsible for a number of strategic acquisitions. Michael Fort, the existing CEO, will become full-time Executive Deputy Chairman with responsibility for the continued development and expansion of the Group.

Chairman, Professor Trevor Jones explained the reasons behind these changes which are designed to strengthen the senior management team and provide the scope, support and skills to bring the company’s expansion plans to fruition: “We are absolutely delighted to announce the appointment of Dr Berthoux and to have acquired a candidate of such outstanding calibre. There is no doubt that we have on board one of the most respected and knowledgeable professionals in the international clinical trials industry who will be a considerable asset to us in the future. Dr Berthoux has a vital role to play in ensuring our future success and we are all thrilled that he is joining us at such an exciting time.”

Professor Jones continues: “We’ve gone from being a company with $15m turnover in 2006, to an international group with a turnover of $50m expected this year. We’ve moved from being a solely UK-based operation to one that has operations in Western and Central and Eastern Europe, South Africa and India. These achievements were possible due, in no small part, to our highly skilled and dedicated executive management team. This expanded team, which brings additional skill sets will help take Synexus into its next phase of growth.”

Dr Christophe Berthoux will take over as Chief Executive from 12th September. According to the Synexus Chairman, Dr Berthoux stood out for his excellent commercial experience, his entrepreneurial instincts, and his outstanding business background: “Christophe has extensive business management as well as sales and marketing experience at the most senior levels. He knows the clinical trials sector inside out and he has the entrepreneurial drive and flair that Synexus needs. Synexus have good reason to be proud of the quality of their clinical trials data, Christophe will be responsible for ensuring that these very high standards are maintained as we continue to expand the group, not only within existing geographical locations, but also as we take our operations into new countries and regions.”

It is the model Synexus introduced to the clinical trials sector some 18 years ago, that has underpinned the success the group now enjoys. The group currently has 26 Dedicated Research Centres across 9 countries and with Michael Fort moving to a position to focus entirely on acquisitions and growth, future expansion is expected sooner rather than later, as Fort explains: “I’ve been with Synexus for ten years now and have thoroughly enjoyed being part of the dynamic growth of this innovative organisation. We’ve seen our model being adopted far more widely as pharma gets to grips with the urgent need to address its productivity issues in terms of getting new drugs to market more quickly and less expensively. Synexus has shown that using its own Dedicated Research Centres speeds up clinical trials, makes them more cost-effective and delivers consistent results across the board. My new role means that all my efforts will focused on realising our plans for significant growth in the coming months and years. We are already close to finalising plans for new operations in India.”

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Synexus notes:

Synexus® headquartered in Manchester, England, is the world’s largest multi-national company dedicated to the recruitment and running of clinical trials at its own research centres across the globe on behalf of its pharmaceutical, biotech and CRO clients. Synexus now has 26 Dedicated Research Centres across the UK, Germany, Austria, Poland, Hungary, Ukraine, Bulgaria, India and South Africa staffed by full-time GCP-trained investigators.

The traditional way of recruiting for clinical trials through individual doctors is still by far the most common method, despite the fact that each doctor only recruits an average of five patients per study and more than 60 percent recruit one or less. This incredibly costly model remains the norm.

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