A joint venture agreement between PPD and a Japanese company will boost PPD’s market reach and breadth of services, officials said Wednesday announcing the closure of the deal.
PPD and Japanese pharmaceutical development company Shin Nippon Biomedical Laboratories Ltd. (SNBL) have closed on their agreement to provide clinical development services in Japan. Under the terms of the agreement, PPD-SNBL is majority-owned by PPD, the release stated.
“With the completion of the deal, PPD-SNBL is one of the largest clinical development service providers in Japan, both for clients seeking to conduct global clinical trials and for trials based solely in Japan,” the release stated, adding that the new company combines SNBL’s clinical research division and PPD’s clinical development operations in Japan and provides clients with a full range of services, from clinical trial monitoring to data management and regulatory compliance.
The new joint venture “positions PPD at the forefront of the CRO industry in Japan” and gives it a distinct competitive advantage, according to a statement from Paul Colvin, PPD’s executive vice president of clinical development who is also now chairman and chief executive officer of PPD-SNBL.
“PPD-SNBL provides biopharmaceutical clients the best of both worlds for their research programs involving Japan: PPD’s global capabilities, systems and processes combined with SNBL’s depth of clinical knowledge and scope in Japan,” Colvin said in the release.
PPD-SNBL will have offices in Tokyo, Osaka and Kagoshima, and will employ about 400 clinical development professionals, according to the release. Colvin said in an email Wednesday that support for PPD-SNBL's global clinical trial operations will come both from Japan and from PPD's global operations, including from its Wilmington headquarters.
PPD selected SNBL as an established Japanese research organization and a recognized company with local know-how, a deep history and a strong reputation in the CRO marketplace in Japan, Colvin said in the email. "Forming the joint venture also assists SNBL in completing its plan of building a strong global value chain in the entire drug development process. With the completion of the deal, PPD-SNBL is one of the largest clinical development service providers in Japan," he added.
The two companies have agreed to collaborate in a number of areas outside the clinical development joint venture, according to the release. Among those areas are SNBL’s early stage businesses – including translational research out-licensing business – and specialized neuroscience, vaccines and biologic studies, the release stated.
"As a global CRO with extensive capabilities in Asia-Pacific, PPD is receiving strong client demand for services in the region," Colvin said in his email. "Pharmaceutical companies are accelerating the inclusion of Japan in their global drug development programs concurrently with their drug development programs in the United States and in European markets. As pharma companies have outsourced more drug development in Japan to CRO partners, they are seeking efficiencies and capabilities that can only be provided by a leading global CRO like PPD."
Founded in 1977 in Tokyo, SNBL is a major provider of development services to biopharmaceutical companies, the release stated. It also has a translational research business, which uses SNBL’s development capabilities to create "value-adding technologies" and provides them to the pharmaceutical and medical industry.
