bio chat
“Need to educate the general public
about clinical research”
Mentioned Mr Naz Haji, Senior Vice President and CRO Head-India, Singapore, Malaysia
and Indonesia, QuintilesIMS who is responsible for providing vision, strategic business
and technology direction, and operational capabilities to support the company's growth
across Asia. While he joined his current role in 2015, Mr Haji has been a part of
QuintilesIMS since 2006 as Vice President, Global IT, leading its global infrastructure
and operations. In a chat with Biovoice, Naz shared insights into his organization’s
activities in India besides opinion on clinical research scenario in India. Read the
detailed interview below:
BY RAHUL KOUL
Please take our readers through the major
initiatives at QuintilesIMS India since you took
over the mantle a year ago?
I took over the India CRO business at a very critical
inflexion point for the clinical research industry in
India. After a challenging couple of years when clinical
research in the country was impacted by an
unpredictable and uncertain regulatory environment,
we had in late 2014-2015 begun to see revisions in
some of the earlier contentious guidelines and orders,
as well as new regulation that was more rational and
indicative of stakeholder feedback.
My major focus was working closely with my Clinical
Operations team to ensure that we were in a state of
preparedness to take on the requirements of a
‘renewed’ regulatory environment and the business that
was likely to come to India as a result. This included
new systems and processes to incorporate the revised
regulations and new ways of working. My job also
involved working with global colleagues to make them
more aware of the regulatory changes in the country
and what this means for doing clinical research in the
country. It was also to provide strategic support and
counsel to our customers and helping them navigate
through the changing regulatory environment. My
agenda also included ensuring that we continued to
work with a single minded focus on patients.
What kind of strategic alliances has the
company forged in recent years and the
respective objectives?
There are many alliances that QuintilesIMS (previously
Quintiles) has announced in the last three years. One is
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BioVoiceNews | October 2016
the merger of IMS Holdings with Quintiles pursuant to
which the companies have combined in an all-stock
merger of equals transaction. The merged company
has been named Quintiles IMS Holdings, Inc. The
strategic rationale is to combine IMS Health’s rich,
global information solutions with Quintiles’ industryleading product development skills.
QuintilesIMS also joined hands with Quest
Diagnostics to launch Q2 Solutions, a new combined
clinical trials laboratory services organization. Q2
Solutions has brought together the clinical trials