Tokyo CRO and Ecron Acunova Form Strategic Alliance
Sponsors Gain Geographical Advantage with Service Expertise across Asia and Europe for Clinical Research

Bangalore, Karnataka, India, Thursday, November 12, 2009 -- (Business Wire India)

Two leading full service contract research organizations (CRO’s), Tokyo CRO, Inc. and Ecron Acunova today announced the formation of a strategic alliance strengthening their services in India, Europe and Japan providing sponsors with a global network. This alliance provides pharmaceutical, medical device and biotechnology companies’ with access to India, Japan as well as European countries for clinical research. The alliance network is strengthened through a combination of Tokyo CRO’s presence in Japan with Ecron Acunova’s presence in India and 14 countries in Europe.

Speaking on the strength of this alliance, Toshimi Nishiyama, Ph.D. President, Chairman and CEO of Tokyo CRO said, “As a full service CRO, we have established our presence across Japan, China and Korea. This alliance enables us to extend clinical trials to India, Europe and US.

Driving advantages of geography, Mr. D A Prasanna, Founder of Ecron Acunova added, “Japan is a key market and requires specific Japanese requirements for the approval of NDA. Often, the opportunity to market the drug is missed due to the specificity for procedure of the approval in Japan. As a full service CRO we have established our expertise across EU, US and India. With sponsors increasingly including Japan in drug development programs, it is imperative for us to establish our operations through experts like Tokyo CRO in the region. While both partners offer full-service CRO operations independently, our execution synergy is enhanced when operating together, rivaling the capability of any competing CRO.”

A report by Biopharm Knowledge Publishing reveals that the current CRO market is $ 20 billion and the global CRO market growing by 12% per annum. As an emerging geography, with increasing cost pressures and the importance of doing truly global drug development for all markets, Japan has witnessed growing attention as a clinical trial location keenly integrated into global programs and trials. Similarly Japanese pharma companies are increasingly expanding their trial settings to highly attractive geographies such as India marking Asia as a lucrative clinical trial destination.

Notes to the Editor:

Tokyo CRO Inc. (http://www.cro.co.jp), a leading Japanese CRO, is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. Its subsidiaries are Seoul CRO in Korea and Beijing CRO in China. The company has a growing presence in East Asia with offices across Tokyo, Osaka, Kobe, Sapporo and Fukuoka, and provides full services. Services include strategic planning for clinical development, monitoring, data management and biostatistics, post marketing surveillance, safety information management, medical writing, quality assurance, and regulatory affairs.

Ecron Acunova (www.ecronacunova.com) is headquartered in Bangalore with offices across Delhi, Mumbai, Mangalore and Manipal in India and European headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany with operations in 14 countries. Ecron Acunova provides end-to-end services for Phase I - IV clinical research, including Clinical Operations, Data Management, Biostatistics, PK/PD services and Central Lab. Ecron Acunova provides clinical development services to the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, nutritional, device and medical diagnostics industries. The service quality, therapeutic expertise and global reach have allowed Ecron Acunova to grow rapidly, building a list of demanding clients. Ecron Acunova provides an attractive package of services coupled with the ability to rapidly conduct clinical trials utilizing a world class delivery platform. Their team of 300 professionals includes 62 MDs and PhDs. As a full service CRO, Ecron Acunova is reputed to accelerate pharma time-to-market cost effectively.