TNT gears up to ride Asian clinical trial wave
Express and logistics giant TNT is positioning itself to capitalise on expected 20 per cent annual growth in Asia’s clinical trial market over the next five years.
TNT’s new director of clinical life sciences for Asia, Lim Bee Koong, has been tasked with spearheading TNT’s push. A life sciences industry veteran with more than 10 years experience, Ms Lim will oversee an area that includes China, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand and Vietnam.
TNT says that her appointment reflects the strategic importance the company places on expanding its operations in life sciences. It already handles close to a million clinical samples worldwide each year, and is the market leader in this segment in Singapore, Australia, Hong Kong, Japan, Taiwan, Korea, India and Thailand.
It also has six ‘regional life sciences centres of excellence’ – in Singapore, Tokyo, Geneva, Edinburgh, Sydney and Johannesburg.
Ms Lim reckons that there is still plenty of room for the clinical trial and drug discovery market to grow. ‘As populations live longer, particularly in developed countries, the number of people suffering from chronic illnesses will increase, which in turn fuel a demand for improved and newer medication to be widely and readily available,’ she says.
‘Consequently, global pharmaceutical sales grew 7 per cent to US$600 billion last year, with the Asia-Pacific region expected to grow up to 12 per cent annually. We expect to see a corresponding growth of 20 per cent in clinical trials across the region.’
Recent developments in countries such as China, India and Japan have led to the burgeoning clinical trial market in Asia. China and India are expected to post consistent 20-25 per cent growth.
Revisions to pharmaceutical regulations and tighter patent laws have also made it easier to conduct clinical trials in India, making it the fourth-largest drug market in terms of volume.
At present, clinical trial logistics is worth S$16 million. This makes it one of the fastest-growing sectors of India’s S$8.5 billion a year pharmaceutical industry.
Similarly, Japan also is expected to post strong growth. TNT estimates that the clinical trial market in Japan, which was expected to be worth more than S$27 million in 2004, will grow almost seven times to S$180 million by 2010.
Headquartered in the Netherlands, TNT operates in more than 200 countries and employs over 128,000 people – excluding the logistics division, which is intended to be divested.
It reported 2005 revenue of 10.1 billion euros – or 13.6 billion euros including logistics. It is publicly listed on the stock exchanges of Amsterdam and New York. The express division reported revenue of 5.3 billion euros for 2005. And the 124 million euros posted by TNT Express for the first quarter 2006 was 30.5 per cent more than the 95 million euros for the first quarter 2005.
