Bridge links China and US
between its facilities in the US and China to enable its employees
to cross train in both labs - a potential competitive advantage for
a contract research organisation (CRO).
The new Visiting Scholar Programme offered by the company is the first of its kind in the pre-clinical CRO industry and will provide support for US employees to train at Bridge's Beijing facility. On the flip side, Chinese employees will have the opportunity to be trained at its Maryland-based laboratory.
"The first thing that any prospective client looks at is our training records so the advantage is critical," Glenn Rice, Bridge's CEO, told Outsourcing-Pharma.com.
"We believe people make the company, and we believe cross technical, regulatory, scientific and cultural training in China and the US will greatly facilitate our global integration."
The company said it is making effort to assure that its staff has all of the skills necessary to deliver high quality results with preparation that goes "well beyond just the basic requirements outlined in industry regulations."
China has recently been dubbed as the favourite destination for outsourcing stages of the drug development and there is a growing amount of preclinical and clinical studies that are being conducted in the country - especially due to the low costs involved.
As a result, efforts are increasingly being made to harmonise manufacturing processes across China and the US. An important aspect is achieving valid laboratory study results with valid conclusions using processes that are acceptable to global regulatory standards.
Bridge has in place internal instruction on unique aspects of US FDA good laboratory practices (GLP) versus China's State Food and Drug Administration (SFDA) GLP regulations, as well as the preclinical requirement prior to the start of clinical trial in China versus in the US.
"Both our facilities are GLP compliant and that requires a high level of training for employees," said Rice.
"From safety testing, bioanalytical testing, procurement, project management, regulatory affairs, [our employees] are becoming industry leading globalisation experts. This programme is intended to develop these skills even further."
Rice added that the Visiting Scholar Programme provides a unique advantage to employees. After an approval process, the company will select six employees a year for each site, who will then be able to choose to train in one of the two facilities for a period of six months to two years.
"The US is expressing a growing interest in China at the moment so we hope this new programme will create a great excitement."
Bridge said it is the only pre-clinical CRO to develop drugs to US level standards in Asia.
The company, headquartered in California, has facilities in Beijing, China and in Maryland in the US.
