Immtech joins the China club

The US company has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Beijing Capital Medical University (BCMU) in Beijing, one of China's leading academic medical research centres, to form a joint venture later this year that will provide a range of preclinical contract research services in the country on behalf of international biopharma firms.

"As the world's most rapidly expanding market for healthcare products, China is poised for explosive growth in research in the years ahead, especially related to early stage drug discovery," said Mr Guo, director of BCMU Resource Management Center.

Specific services will range from research planning and risk assessment through to preclinical and clinical study design.

"By combining our complementary resources and expertise, we will deliver high-quality research services that will help companies to reduce the time and costs associated with drug discovery," said Eric Sorkin, chairman and CEO of Immtech.

Eventually there is a plan in place to move the scope of services offered beyond the initial focus of on early-stage drug discovery, to include the support of later-stage clinical development, Sorkin explained.

This will include coordination with research sites, data management, monitoring and reporting for clinical research programs, as well as providing counsel related to clinical research regulatory guidelines and regulatory review procedures in China.

There have been a number of pairings of international companies with preclinical services enterprises in China of late, as a number of domestic firms have been building up their experience in this area and are now drawing interest form international firms who are eyeing China's cost-efficiency of developing drugs compared with the west, resulting from the low-cost scientific talent, clinical trials and raw materials available in the country (with a lowest estimate of 10 per cent of the cost of similar expertise in the US).

In addition, international firms are recognising the value that Chinese firms can offer in terms of their familiarity with the domestic regulatory agencies and markets.

Alongside this, the Chinese government is strongly encouraging foreign companies to develop their products in the country.

Only last week China's top contract research organisation (CRO) WuXi PharmaTech formed a joint venture with its US-based peer Covance, in a deal which will create a powerhouse in drug development services.

The 50-50 joint venture has been created to "provide world-class preclinical contract research services in China" as the companies look to capitalise on the rise in outsourcing.

In January this year, US-based MPI Research and China's Shanghai Medicilon formed a preclinical services joint venture in China and in February, Europe's Novasecta formed an alliance with Chinese CROs Sundia Meditech and HD BioSciences to provide their R&D services to European mid-sized biopharma firms.