Bangalore, Jul 31, 2009: Two leading full service contract research organizations, Essential CRO and Ecron Acunova have announced the formation of a global strategic alliance to strengthen the service offerings in emerging markets and help customers leverage the convergence of a broad global network.

This alliance is said to provide pharmaceutical, biotechnology, device, diagnostic and nutritional sponsors with access to 18 countries in key emerging sectors for clinical research. The alliance network is established through a combination of Essential CRO’s presence in Gurnee, Illinois with Ecron Acunova, based in Bangalore, India with its US office in Princeton, NJ and an established presence, headquartered in Frankfurt, Germany, across 14 countries in Europe.

Speaking on the strength of this alliance, Mr Lee Jones President, Essential CRO said, “This alliance provides immediate global capability to our sponsors through highly experienced best-in-class operations that have been harmonized between the partners without our undergoing the years or cost of such development independently. Our combined size of 350 employees and corporate cultures of fast, focused, friendly and flexible relationship management ensure that the alliance maintains the ability to meet unique sponsor needs in a timely manner.”

Driving advantages of Europe and India, Mr D A Prasanna, Founder of Ecron Acunova added, “Our strategic alliance adds over twenty years of clinical trial experience of conducting trials for marketing authorizations in the key markets of US and EU and the fast patient recruitment advantage of Central and East Europe and India. Essential’s therapeutic database of over 4,500 studies makes its feasibility truly unique, and its global patient recruitment expertise has unmatched results. Further, sponsors see benefit in speedy completion of early development studies with Ecron Acunova’s PK/PD, central lab and biometric services under one roof. While both partners offer full-service CRO operations independently, their execution synergy is enhanced when operating together, rivaling the capability of any competing CRO.”

Essential and Ecron Acunova have been partners for several years, but the magnitude of project size and positive sponsor feedback on the combined team execution have been instrumental in establishing this alliance. The alliance is said to have passed several international clients QA audits over the past two years reinforcing the quality of execution.

In the past six months the alliance is said to have won key global projects in the eight figure range in over 14 countries from leading mid-sized biotech and large pharma sponsors reflecting a winning edge and profitable alliance.