BBK Worldwide and CROèe Partner to Improve Japan's Competitive Position in the Clinical Research Marketplace

BBK Worldwide (BBK), a patient recruitment innovator for the clinical R&D segment of the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and medical device industries, announces a strategic alliance with CROèe.

The Japanese pharmaceutical market is the second largest individual market in the world, with sales of $60 billion, which constitutes 11% of global pharmaceutical sales. Despite Japan’s market size, it typically takes 2.5 years longer for a drug to come to market in Japan than in most other countries.

“One immediate result of the partnership will be the ability to offer research sponsors a more reliable process for site identification and selection. BBK’s physician database, the BIO NotifierSM, combined with CROèe’s patient database, will serve as a resource to help clinical trial sponsors quickly and efficiently find appropriate patients and investigators of which they had previously been unaware,” comments Sho Ando, President, CROèe. “I am looking forward to being able to introduce global standards of patient recruitment and analysis to the Japanese market, and to contribute to an increased public understanding of clinical research,” continues Ando.

The formation of the alliance further demonstrates BBK’s commitment to industry growth within the region, having established an office in Osaka, Japan in 2009. CROèe will join a network of companies that make up the BBK Worldwide Alliance – companies that have been vetted for their demonstrated ability to provide sophisticated patient recruitment services in their country or region. Under BBK’s direction, the members of the BBK Worldwide Alliance provide clients with the most extensive recruitment capabilities available in the world today.