Celerion, a world-renowned early phase CRO, established its first Asian subsidiary at SNUH Clinical Trials Center
Celerion, a world-renowned early phase CRO, established
its first Asian subsidiary at SNUH Clinical Trials Center
Celerion,
a world-renowned early phase Contract Research Organization (CRO), established
its first presence in Asia through a Korean office at SNUH Clinical Trials Center
opened on March 3, 2014.
After visiting many outstanding clinical trials
centers in countries including China, India and Japan over many years to explore
the possibility of expanding its business in Asia, Celerion finally selected
Korea as the most suitable place since Korea has shown the most remarkable progress
in the global clinical trial market over the last decade. Accordingly, the Clinical
Trials Center at SNUH, which is known for the highest quality of its clinical
investigators and infrastructure for clinical trial, has been chosen as a welcoming
host for Celerion’s first subsidiary in Asia.
With more than forty years
of experience as an early phase CRO, Celerion has the world’s best expertise
and facility among individual organizations in the field of clinical trials.
It currently runs a total of 750 clinical test centers in 24 regions across
the globe.
At the opening ceremony, Susan Thornton, PhD, CEO of Celerion,
remarked, “We are highly pleased to start a new collaboration
with SNUH and its Clinical Trials Center, which collectively have shown cutting
edge science and strong competitiveness in clinical trials to the world. With
SNUH’s best translational research infrastructure and richly experience in
early clinical trials, we are looking forward to having more opportunities to
jointly engage in successful clinical trials.”
Byung-Hee Oh,
MD, PhD, President and CEO of SNUH, also delivered a message of congratulation,
saying “SNUH has achieved a remarkable success in the field of global clinical
trial over the last decade. It is my sincere expectation that both institutions,
Celerion, the global leader in early clinical trials, and SNUH, the first hospital
designated as a global clinical trials center in Korea, will thrive and enjoy
a win-win partnership together.”
Dr. Yung-Jue Bang, MD, PhD,
President of Biomedical Research Institute at SNUH, who also serve as the Director
of SNUH Clinical Trials Center, added: “Through this
cooperative relationship, SNUH will not only take the lead in early clinical
trials of local pharmaceutical companies but also actively participate in drug
development programs sponsored by global pharmaceutical companies.”
As
Celerion Korea opens, many early clinical trials with drugs and medical devices
sponsored by global pharmaceutical companies are expected to be conducted in
Korea. Furthermore, the establishment of Celerion Korea can be seen
as the first step towards laying down a foundation for domestic pharmaceutical
companies that have tried to develop new drugs of global competitiveness.
Also,
the establishment of Celerion Korea fully supports the SNUH’s strategic goal
to focus on early clinical trials, which became official when SNUH CTC was designated
as a Global Center of Excellence in Early Clinical Trials by the Korean Ministry
of Health and Welfare in November 2012.
Moreover, Merck Sharp & Dohme
(MSD), the company known for its highest standard of choosing a site, selected
the Department of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine and Department of Clinical
Pharmacology and Therapeutics at SNUH to conduct a first-in-human (FIH) clinical
trial for their product under development. Since it was the first time for MSD
to choose a site in Asia to conduct FIH clinical trial, it proved the global
leadership of SNUH in the fields of translational research and early clinical
trials.