Dublin, Ireland, January 15th 2008 – ICON (NASDAQ: ICLR), a global provider of outsourced development services to the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device industries, today announced the opening of new offices in Prague, Kiev and Bucharest. This milestone represents the continuing expansion of the company’s clinical research activity in Central and Eastern Europe.
“The Central and Eastern European regions are emerging locales for clinical trials, and we are committed to meet the industry’s needs for management of clinical trials in these areas,” said Alan Morgan, President ICON Clinical Research Europe.
“The healthcare environment in Central and Eastern Europe offers great opportunities and facilities for drug development. The expansion of ICON’s capabilities is supported by the availability of large homogenous patient populations (mainly treatment naïve patients), competitive approval timelines and an important network of highly qualified investigators,” continued Alan Morgan.
The new ICON facilities in Prague, Kiev and Bucharest are strategically located near leading teaching hospitals and national clinical research sites and provided access to investigators and patient groups. These sites will be staffed by experienced teams with the capability to effectively supply project management, clinical monitoring and regulatory submissions services.
The facilities in Prague, Kiev and Bucharest add to ICON’s office network in Central and Eastern Europe, which includes established offices in Russia (Moscow and Novosibirsk), Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Hungry.
About ICON plc
ICON plc is a global provider of outsourced development services to the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device industries. The Company specializes in the strategic development, management and analysis of programs that support clinical development - from compound selection to Phase I-IV clinical studies. ICON teams have successfully conducted over 5500 development projects and consultancy engagements across all major therapeutic areas. ICON currently has approximately 5,600 employees, operating from 67 locations in 35 countries. Further information is available at www.iconplc.com