Partnership Creates Region’s Largest Biotech CRO Platform to Meet Demand for Clinical Trials in Asia-Pacific

SYDNEY and SHANGHAI, 4 December 2019 – Novotech and PPC Group (PPC), two leading, Asia-Pacific contract research organisations (CROs), announced today that they have formed a strategic partnership to meet growing demand for clinical trials in the region. The partnership creates the largest biotech specialist CRO platform in the Asia-Pacific, bringing together approximately 1,200 staff with significant scale and synergies across countries, research institutions, trial phases, therapeutic areas and functional specialities.

Novotech and PPC are majority owned by TPG Capital Asia and have already been working closely over the last two years collaborating on delivering biotech clinical trials in the region. Under the partnership, the companies will share an integrated governance structure as well as aligned systems and processes. The structure creates a scalable, regional platform, whereby both companies will continue to retain their own management teams, office locations and brands.

Globally, biotech clinical research activity has increased by 10 per cent each year over the past few years. In the Asia region, the increase has been over 25 per cent per year.[1]

TPG Capital Asia’s Head of Australia and New Zealand Joel Thickins said of the partnership:

“The combined group’s presence as the largest biotech specialist CRO in the Asia Pacific region presents significant growth opportunities and a greater ability to service a fast-growing market with attractive industry fundamentals.”

Novotech CEO Dr John Moller said:

“Strengthening our relationship with PPC will allow us to provide a seamless service to our biotech clients, particularly with access to PPC’s more than 350 Clinical and Operations staff across 28 cities in mainland China.  Our increased scale will allow us to further invest in quality.  This is a good thing for our clients, for institutions and for patients.”

PPC Group CEO Michael Stibilj said:

“PPC and Novotech have a strong record of working together. The complementary nature of Novotech’s position in the region and PPC’s particularly strong presence in mainland China, will be extremely attractive to current and future clients. Importantly, it positions us well to meet the significant and growing biotech demand in the Asia-Pacific market.”  

Jason Zhu, PPC China, CEO added:

“Biotech companies in China are significantly expanding their investment in Multi-Regional Clinical Trials to accelerate product development. They select PPC as we are an agile partner focused on providing strong medical and technical capabilities to enhance their development strategy. The strengthening of the partnership between PPC and Novotech will further expand our ability to offer our customers a flexible and effective clinical development solution.” 

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Media enquiries

Novotech

Susan Fitzpatrick-Napier 

communications@novotech-cro.com

AU: +61 2 8218 2144 

USA: +1 415 951 3228­­­­­­­

Asia: +65 3159 3427

TPG

Liz Liang

eliang@brunswickgroup.com

+852 9015 6858 

PPC

Nika Shen

nika.shen@ppccro.com

+86 13651659758

About Novotech

Novotech, awarded the Frost & Sullivan Asia-Pacific Biotech CRO of the year for the past 5 years, is internationally recognized as the leading Asia-Pacific full-service CRO. Established more than 20 years ago and with its headquarters in Sydney, Australia, Novotech now has 13 offices across 11 countries in the Asia Pacific and 3 client-facing offices in North America.

Novotech has been instrumental in the success of hundreds of Phase I - IV clinical trials in the region. 

Novotech provides clinical development services across all clinical trial phases and therapeutic areas including: feasibility assessments; ethics committee and regulatory submissions, data management, statistical analysis, safety services, central lab services, report write-up to ICH requirements, project and vendor management.

About PPC

PPC Group, a North Asia based full-service CRO founded in 1997, offering a broad range of clinical research services, laboratory and site management services. PPC group has over 600 employees, with headquarters in Shanghai. PPC Group have staff located in 20 cities, operating 11 offices across mainland China, Taiwan, Japan and South Korea and manage 4 Phase I Clinical Pharmacology Units, 3 Bioanalytical Labs (Small molecule and Large Molecule laboratories) and a Central Laboratory. 

PPC Group has supported more than 350 customers, performing over 500 Phase I-IV clinical trials and over 1500 generic drug bioequivalence studies. PPC Group is the first CRO in Asia who has undergone inspections from all major international regulatory agencies (US FDA, EU EMA, Japan’s PMDA and China’s NMPA), all resulting in the successful registration of the client’s products. We pride ourselves on understanding the unique set of challenges faced by emerging biopharma companies and are devoted to over-come their challenges and help them maximize their asset value at every stage.

About TPG

TPG is a leading global alternative asset firm founded in 1992 with more than $111 billion of assets under management and offices in Austin, Beijing, Boston, Dallas, Fort Worth, Hong Kong, Houston, London, Luxembourg, Melbourne, Moscow, Mumbai, New York, San Francisco, Seoul, and Singapore. TPG's investment platforms are across a wide range of asset classes, including private equity, growth venture, real estate, credit, and public equity. TPG aims to build dynamic products and options for its investors while also instituting discipline and operational excellence across the investment strategy and performance of its portfolio. For more information, visit www.tpg.com.

[1] Source:GlobalData/Novotech