Veeda Clinical Research and Kitasato East University Hospital present joint seminar to the Japanese Pharmaceutical Industry in the British Embassy in Tokyo.

Veeda Clinical Research and Kitasato University collaborated to present a one day meeting on the co-development of drugs in the East and West. The two sessions of the meeting were chaired by Dr Maurice Cross , Veeda’s Group Medical Director and Prof Yuji Kumagai of the Kitasato University. The meeting was held in the Hall of the British Embassy in Tokyo and was formally opened by His Excellency, David Warren, the British Ambassador to Japan. The meeting was attended by many of the larger companies in the Japanese Pharmaceutical Industry and attracted some 50 attended from over 20 companies.

In his opening remarks, Ambassador Warren commented on the joint collaboration between the two groups, one commercial and one academic and pointed to the increasing number of such ventures between the Japanese and British Pharmaceutical industries.

The Japanese speakers at the meeting were led by Prof Yasuhiko Ikeda of Kitasato East University Hospital and was followed by Professor Shunsuke Ono of the University of Tokyo. Both speakers highlighted the differences in drug usage and prescribing practice between Japan and the West, sometimes based on sound science and sometimes on the traditions of the varying regulatory bodies.

In a challenging talk the Japanese contribution was given by Professor Hiuroshi Watanabe of Hammamatsu Medical School who illustrated with examples how some trials of drugs carried out in the West suggested that the drugs had ‘failed’ to treat their target conditions but the same drugs had worked in Japanese patients, he showed scans of effective cancer remission induced in Japanese patients by drugs deemed ineffective in the West. His concluding remarks were that Japan had to participate in Global studies or potentially useful drugs of value to the Japanese patient pool might not be evaluated in environment where they work.

The UK contribution was provided by three speakers from Veeda Clinical Research.

The first speaker, Dr Prashil Koovejee gave a clear and precise account of the newer formats for early evaluation of drugs which have become available to researchers in the West through regulatory changes enabling drugs to be brought to the clinic much earlier with fewer animal tests.

Dr Richard Taylor, also of Veeda Clinical Research then described the regulatory framework necessary for introducing Japanese drugs to the Western Clinical Trials market.
The session was concluded by a provocative talk by Dr Maurice Cross, the Founder of Veeda’s original clinical trials unit in Plymouth who told the audience that he was going to ‘open their eyes’ and who talked of the huge value to be obtained through using a well established company in the West who nevertheless was able to channel trials through units established in both India and South West Asia who provide economies of cost and time and access to a wide variety of patient populations in a growing clinical trials area. It was a combination of the best of the old and of the new which characterized Veeda’s approach.

After the concluding remarks by Prof Yugi Kumagai, the meeting closed with a buffet reception.

Dr Maurice Cross, Veeda’s Group Medical Director commented afterwards that the joint seminar with a Japanese University demonstrated Veeda’s long term commitment to becoming the leading early clinical development CRO in that whole region. He stated that “with our extensive commitment to both clinics and laboratories in India and now in Ampang Hospital in Malaysia and the agreement with Kitasato University to collaborate for the long-term on conducting trials for our mutual benefit, Veeda is positioned as the leading player in these evolving markets. We provide the Global Pharmaceutical Industry with new locations for effective drug development – that is what Veeda is all about”