Singapore: Almac, a global clinical trial solution provider, is expanding clinical services and technologies capabilities in Asia by establishing regional hubs in Singapore and Japan. The expansion is to address industry's growing need to conduct clinical trials in Asia and manage global trials from the region.

"From protocol to patient to kit destruction, Almac delivers high quality, flexible and cost-effective solutions that enable a more comprehensive approach to trial supply management," said Mr Alan Armstrong, CEO, Almac. "No one else can provide the global scale, scope and reach required to optimize sponsors' R&D investments across every facet of the supply chain - within Asia or around the world."

Providing expert and responsive service is essential for all trials, but particularly those managed from or within Asia. Sponsors must be able to navigate technical, logistical and clinical complexities from trial start-up through to supply and patient management. Almac's local teams support studies of all sizes and degrees of complexity, helping sponsors to achieve time-saving efficiencies, reduce costs and improve trial outcomes. Services are augmented by a secure, web-based interface to monitor trial execution anywhere in the world, multi-lingual technical and project teams, and an in-house 24x7x365 hotline connecting site staff to on-call clinicians and unblinding specialists.

Almac is strengthening its Asia Pacific offerings by establishing a new secondary packaging facility in Singapore that will open by the end of 2014. Through this facility, the company will better enable just-in-time supply management and support drug pooling strategies, which further optimize the supply chain, minimize wastage and reduce costs.

"With 15 percent of all clinical trials conducted in Asia, it's imperative that we provide localized service and support to our clients," continues Mr Armstrong. "We've long managed clinical trials on a global basis, but there's now sufficient critical mass that requires we establish dedicated resources in the region. I'm pleased that our international expertise and global capabilities are now even more accessible to sponsors in this critically-important part of the world, and look forward to opening our new packaging facility later this year."