North Carolina-based CRO Quintiles has opened a new four-story, 236,000-square-foot clinical research facility in Overland Park, Kan. The facility will replace the company’s Clinical Development Services and Clinical Pharmacology units located in Kansas City, Mo., as well a an early phase unit in Lenexa, Kan. The new phase I facility will be three times the space, consisting of 150 beds and room for up to 200 more staff. Quintiles already employs about 750 employees in the Kansas City area.

The unit was dedicated in a ceremony by company founder and chief executive officer Dennis Gillings and David Kerr, Secretary of the Kansas Department of Commerce. Also in attendance were Thomas Thornton, president and chief executive officer of the Kansas Bioscience Authority, and Carl Gerlach, mayor of Overland Park.

"Ultimately, however, this building is about even more than the creation of jobs in Overland Park and the growth of Quintiles," Gillings said. "It is about improving healthcare -- for people in Kansas, across the United States and around the world."