PRA, a global CRO, has officially opened its new facility in Swansea, Wales. The expansion is being supported with $1.9 million business finance from the Welsh government.

The company is expanding its clinical informatics team in Swansea by establishing a new multi-lingual help desk, creating more positions in the data coordination, clinical programming and safety groups. It is planned that the expansion will create 100 new graduate-level jobs. PRA is keen to recruit high quality graduates from Swansea, Cardiff and Aberystwyth Universities and the University of South Wales, for a range of jobs from programmers to data managers.

“A number of other locations were under consideration for this important expansion project so I am delighted that support from the Welsh government helped secure it for Wales,” said Edwina Hart, minister for the Economy, Science and Transport. “This investment is particularly welcome as PRA is a strategically important company within the Life Sciences sector—one of our priority economic sectors with high growth potential.” She added that the expansion will create a significant number of highly-skilled jobs across a range of disciplines over the next three years and reaffirms PRA’s commitment to Wales.

Steve Powell, PRA executive vice president, clinical informatics and late phase services, said, “We are delighted to officially open our expanded location in Swansea. The new site has received substantial funding from the Welsh government which will mean significant job creation and support for the local economy. As a leading CRO, we are committed to the growth of our Swansea team and to transforming clinical trials across all phases of drug development; the new building and jobs demonstrates PRA’s commitment to offering a more dynamic service to our customers, both locally and internationally.”

PRA, headquartered in North Carolina, currently employs more than 5,000 employees in over 50 global offices, with the Swansea operation currently providing 100 clinical informatics and administration staff who collect, analyze and interpret data from clinical trials. The planned expansion will double the size of the office and ultimately employ close to 200 people in the Swansea area.

Formerly based in Matrix Court, Swansea, PRA moved to Llys Tawe on Swansea’s SA1 development. The move supports PRA's key strategic objective of creating seamless logistics from data collection through information submission for its global customer base.