Quintiles has relocated its global central laboratory in Japan to meet rising demand from the local market and US and European pharmas keen to include the country in their clinical trial network.
US Patient recruitment specialist BBK Worldwide has set up a unit in Osaka, Japan to improve enrolment rates for studies in the country and help local pharma and biotech firms cut costs.
Commonwealth Biotechnologies (CBI) has planted its first roots in
Japan, as the world's number two pharmaceutical market continues to
attract foreign firms.
2005 marked the real beginning of contract manufacturing in Japan,
which had been held back by an overly-cautious regulatory
environment and significant and unique quality and specification
demands in the marketplace.
Pfizer, among others, recently offered an insight into R&D
outsourcing in Japan, where this services market is still fairly
immature, with growth potential in several key areas.
Japan is getting serious about clinical trial reform after years of
lagging behind the rest of the developed world in the availability
of drugs in the country, which ironically is the world's number two
pharma market behind the...
Proditec exhibited its new automatic visual tablet inspection
system at the recent CPhI, designed to provide the first
alternative to manual pharmaceutical tablet inspection for smaller
laboratories.
Japan's Chugai Pharmaceutical is planning to slash the number of
manufacturing plants it operates in Japan in the wake of its
alliance with Switzerland's Roche in 2002.
DiscoveRx and B-Bridge International are to venture into the
Japanese assay market that aims to provide Japanese researchers
with a homogenous GPCR and Kinase assay platform for drug
development and screening.
Japan's Insent has developed an artificial tongue - said to be the
first of its kind - that can be used to analyse the taste profiles
of pharmaceuticals, foods and beverages.
Companies from Europe, the US and Japan have announced the
construction of new facilities this month, suggesting that despite
a difficult operating environment big pharma is still making
significant capital investments.
Avecia Pharmaceuticals has consolidated its position in the
evolving Japanese pharmaceutical market by forging a technology
agreement with a local company,reports Phil Taylor.
Japan is losing out competitively at the expense of its rivals in
the global pharmaceutical industry, says EFPIA, and must take steps
to improve the environment for drug companies.
Japanese drugmaker Eisai is planning to double the production
capacity for its two top-selling drugs - Pariet and Aricept - by
2004, with an investment of ¥9 billion (€65m).
