Clinical Network Services (CNS), an Australia-based integrated service group that focuses on clinical product development and has locations in New Zealand, the U.K. and the U.S., has established a new office in Washington, D.C., for its expanded BioDesk division.

With CNS already established in San Francisco, the expansion of a BioDesk office in Washington extends the consultancy’s U.S. footprint, building on product development and regulatory consultancy services offered in Australia and Europe. It will enable BioDesk to better support its clients seeking to engage with the FDA.

Dr. Bryan Smith, who recently joined CNS as a principal medical consultant, will lead the Washington team. Smith, a family medicine clinician and clinical pharmacologist, most recently served with the U.S. Army Medical Materiel Development Activity (USAMMDA) where he chaired the multidisciplinary Integrated Product Teams and managed the development of products designed to prevent and treat malaria in the U.S. Armed Forces. Previously, Smith was a fellow with the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (WRAIR) Experimental Therapeutics, Department of Clinical Pharmacology, and assistant chief, Department of Immunology and Medicine, Armed Forces Institute of Medical Sciences, in Bangkok, Thailand.

In addition, Sally Yang will join Smith in the Washington office as a regulatory consultant. Yang has a strong background of interacting with the FDA and orphan drugs in particular.

CNS has experience on almost 400 distinct projects across 28 therapeutic areas and 105 indications. The BioDesk team, specifically, has worked on more than 150 projects with particular development expertise in vaccines, stem cell therapy and gene therapy.