Quintiles has announced a strategic alliance with Hospital Italiano of Buenos Aires as part of the company's Prime Site program. Hospital Italiano is Quintiles' first Prime Site in Latin America, complementing the company's robust network of investigative sites across the globe.

A Prime Site is a large clinical institution selected by Quintiles to work together and enhance the institution's infrastructure for conducting clinical trials in order to accelerate the development of new and more effective medicines. Quintiles and a Prime Site work together to create a more efficient clinical trial process by recruiting, enrolling and retaining more patients through the course of a clinical trial. The new agreement with Hospital Italiano is designed to involve more patients in clinical trials than has previously been possible in one location in Latin America, increasing patient access to medications. Ultimately, this agreement will help accelerate the collection of critical data about the safety and efficacy of investigational therapies.

"According to the Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development, timelines are typically extended to nearly double their original duration to meet desired patient enrolment levels across all therapeutic areas - delays that can increase costs, deplete resources and prolong the time it takes for drugs to get to patients in need. Quintiles recognizes these challenges and is dedicated to working together differently across the healthcare system to transform drug development and achieve better patient outcomes," said Mr Jeanne Hecht, senior vice-president of site and patient networks at Quintiles.

The new Prime Site at Hospital Italiano has dedicated research facilities, full-time study coordinators, a local College of American Pathologists (CAP)-accredited laboratory and full-service pharmacy. To date, Hospital Italiano has conducted more than 60 trials in 12 different therapy areas with Quintiles comparable to other Quintiles Prime Sites, and delivered the required subjects for a variety of complex trials for the company.

Dr Ventura Simonovich, clinical operations coordinator at Hospital Italiano said, "Hospital Italiano is founded upon three core tenets: healthcare, education and research. We believe this agreement between Hospital Italiano and Quintiles reinforces our commitment with the community of preserving lives with passion by pursuing excellence in all three areas."