Management skills

As business grew, so did the management team. Dr Wang assembled a team of 16 comprising highly skilled and experienced people from different background, who now manage around 400 people under them with over 300 scientists and offering CRO services to over 90 customers from the US, Europe and Japan.

Dr Wang sensed stiff domestic competition emerging with a growing market. She and two other business partners formed CRO Service Alliance (CROSA) in Shanghai, a first-of-its-kind in China in 2007, to provide efficient and high quality CRO services in all related fields of drug discovery and development for clients worldwide.

Just two weeks after forming this alliance, Sundia MediTech and United PharmaTech, one among the other two companies that joined the alliance signed a letter of intent agreeing to combine their businesses, and became a subsidiary of Sundia Investment Group, a holding firm based in the British Virgin Islands, which owns Sundia. This rapid decision from Dr Wang shows that she did not want to miss the advantage of China's high position on the list of top outsourcing destinations for drug development.

Besides joining hands with the other players in CRO market such as HD BioSciences from China, Sundia MediTech has formed a strategic alliance with NovaSecta, a specialist R&D service provider for small and medium-sized pharmas in Europe to bring benefits to European customers. Tigermed Consulting, which provides R&D solutions to pharmaceutical and biotech companies, also joined CROSA. Through these strategic alliances, Sundia has emerged as one of the leading CROs.

Overcoming the initial hurdles like developing the team, funding and marketing, Sundia has built a strong reputation in global pharmaceutical CRO industry, especially in the new drug discovery services. Dr Wang attributes the success of the company to the whole team of Sundia.

Believing in ‘Customer is King', Dr Wang concludes, "We understand our client's needs and always place high priority on timely communication, knowledgeable responses, and strict intellectual property protection. As we continue to grow, we will maintain our commitment to provide the best quality service to our clients.