Synexus Plans to Double Clinical Trial Capacity in South Africa

Synexus® is planning to double clinical trial capacity in South Africa

27 October 2008

Synexus® is planning to more than double its clinical trial capacity in South Africa through the expansion of its Pretoria facilities and by opening two purposed designed sites, one in Mamelodi and one in Soshanguwe.

Synexus® which is a global leader in the recruitment and running of clinical trials hopes to have the new sites completed by March 2009. Synexus® who acquired the clinical trial business CRC SA in 2006 has found South Africa to be an excellent place to undertake clinical trials across a wide variety of therapy areas and phases.

Michael Fort CEO of Synexus® commented: "South Africa has proven to be one of our most successful sites both in terms of achieving high numbers of patients and also in the quality of the trials carried out. We will continue to expand our presence in South Africa."

The Pretoria site is expanding into the adjoining building which will be converted into a full 562 sq metre clinical trials unit for outpatients. The existing building contains a 36 bed Phase I and IIa trial facility.

Siting of the clinical trial clinics in Mamelodi and Soshanguwe are presently being negotiated with the local authorities.

The Synexus® owned clinical trial units as well as affiliated sites within South Africa are involved in a wide variety of therapeutic areas including paediatric vaccines, osteoporosis, women's health, post operative pain and across Phases II and III.

Dr. Sanet Aspinall, South Africa country manager commented: "We are able to carry out a wide variety of clinical studies involving both outpatients and inpatients through our own hub sites, our 36 bed unit as well as affiliated general practitioner and hospital based sites. Since 2006 we have been able to increase turnover by more than 60% as being part of a global clinical trials organisation has given us the opportunity to be involved in many more global studies."

Dr. Aspinall works closely with all of the major pharmas and CROs with offices in South Africa as well as some of the biggest NGOs who are financing clinical trials into vaccines and microbicides.

Synexus®'s South Africa sites are equipped with state of the art equipment including X ray and DXA scanners for bone scanning. Staff numbers are set to rise from 10 clinically trained professionals to more than 25 when the expansion is completed.

Synexus® background
Synexus® headquartered in Manchester, England, is the world's largest multi-national company dedicated to the recruitment and running of late stage clinical trials.

Synexus® recruits participants for clinical trials on behalf of pharmaceutical, biotech and CROs. The clinical trials are then run and managed by Synexus® at 12 clinical research centres across the UK, Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, India and South Africa.

Synexus® pioneered the running of clinical trials at clinical research centres against the traditional method of contracting with primary care physicians, who on average only recruit and manage five patients each.

Synexus® currently has more than ten thousand patients enrolled in clinical trials.