Global CRO Quintiles announced a strategic alliance agreement with the University Malaya Medical Centre (UMMC) in Malaysia as part of its Prime Site program, an initiative focused on accelerating the development of new and more effective medicines.

The UMMC is the first Prime Site in Asia for Quintiles, adding to its existing four sites in the U.S., Europe and Africa. “Prime Sites are large clinical institutions that collaborate with Quintiles to enhance their infrastructure for conducting clinical trials,” said Christopher Cabell, M.D. “The University Malaya Medical Centre is an ideal partner for us because of its experience in conducting clinical research, its access to substantial patient populations and its clinical expertise across multiple therapeutic areas.”

A pioneer in the Asia-Pacific clinical research industry, Quintiles opened its first office there in 1993. Since then, the company has grown to more than 20 offices in 14 countries throughout the region, and has conducted more than 1,300 studies involving more than 9,000 sites and 185,000 patients. In related news, Quintiles is investing up to $2 million in Australia’s Prana Biotechnology.

According to Prana, Quintiles has been “intimately involved” for a number of years with the Melbourne-based company, formed in 1997 to commercialize research into Alzheimer’s disease and other major age-related neurodegenerative disorders. Quintiles was the research partner for Prana’s last successful clinical trial.

Quintiles will help support a planned definitive phase II study with PBT2, the biotechnology company’s lead compound for Alzheimer’s disease, with 525 patients with mild to moderate Alzheimer’s disease for a treatment period of 12 months, with cognition the key performance measure.