PRA Health Sciences K.K.

Company Overview

Parent company headquarters:United States
Established:2017
Location:3-8, Doshomachi 2-chome, Chuo-ku, Osaka, Japan
Business:
1.Clinical development related to pharmaceuticals, medical devices, regenerative medicine products, vaccines, and consignment business such as post marketing surveillance, post-marketing survey, and clinical research.
2.Staff Embedding
Website:PRA Health Sciences K.K.

Interview

Those present at the interview
(President Atsushi Ogawa is on the middle of the picture)

※as of May 16, 2019

PRA Health Sciences K.K. was established in June 2017 as the Japanese subsidiary of the U.S. contract research organization (CRO) PRA Health Sciences.
Boasting a history of more than 30 years, the PRA Group operates in more than 80 countries around the world and employs more than 16,000 staff members, making the group one of the top five businesses in the global CRO market.
Presently, the group has the following bases on a global scale: 14 in North America; six in South America; one in the Middle East; one in Africa; 16 in Asia; 12 in Central and Eastern Europe; and 20 in Western Europe. In Japan, the group has offices in Tokyo and Osaka.

Recently, we visited the Osaka Office of PRA Health Sciences K.K., and interviewed President Atsushi Ogawa and some staff about the background to the company setting up operations in Kansai, the attractive features of the region from the company’s perspective, and the company’s selling points and future business development.

Background to Setting Up Operations in Kansai

In 2016, PRA Health Sciences and a major Japanese R&D-oriented pharmaceutical company (Company X) entered into a strategic global partnership for clinical development.
In 2017, based on this partnership, PRA Health Sciences K.K. (100% owned by PRA) was established as the PRA Japanese subsidiary, and a joint company with Company X (investment ratio, PRA : Company X = 50:50) was also founded. These two companies are positioned as PRA Japan.

To set up operations in Osaka and establish a new base, we received support from the Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) Invest Japan Business Support Center (IBSC) Osaka. The IBSC offered us a wide variety of information (on incentives provided by local governments), and introduced us to service providers (real estate agents) and local governments.

Attractive Features of Kansai

We are presently headquartered in Osaka, Kansai, where there are many pharmaceutical companies and universities with a pharmacy department. In addition, compared with Tokyo, home to the country’s largest concentration of companies, the competition for talented personnel is less intense, apparently making it easier to recruit employees. Moreover, unlike Tokyo, which is suffering a rise in costs in terms of living expenses, commuting times, etc. as a result of an extreme concentration of population and industries, it costs less in Kansai, and this is another great advantage.
New graduates in particular tend to try to find employment in Tokyo, but we would like them to know that even though they are in Kansai, they can work in the front line and demonstrate their capabilities in the global arena.

Selling Points

An office party that makes you feel their global company culture

Our greatest strength lies in our “borderless” corporate culture. We do not just operate at each base, but ensure that members from our bases around the world form global project teams, meaning that we can achieve cooperation among a wide variety of members. Clinical development is a field bounded by many restrictions, but our corporate culture is much more flexible than that of our competitors. Regardless of their status in the organization, each employee is provided with an opportunity according to their life stage so that they can demonstrate their capabilities to the fullest extent possible.

Our business is characterized by adoption of the horizontal cooperation model. Unlike the vertical integration model, in which CROs partially take charge of operations in the conventional development phase and implement plans prepared by pharmaceutical companies, the horizontal cooperation model requires pharmaceutical companies and CROs to cooperate, with their roles divided, in a full line ranging from planning and implementing clinical tests to assuming responsibility for the results. The horizontal cooperation model is in line with the needs of pharmaceutical companies that call for strategic partners. In the West, the model has already become the norm, and we expect that this trend will spread within Japan as well.

Furthermore, in 2017, we acquired a U.S. company that provides services through tablet PCs and smartphones. We are now developing implementation tools for clinical development using tablet PCs and smartphones.

Future Business Development

In June 2019, our headquarters will be relocated to an even more spacious office in the city of Osaka, which will help us strive to further reinforce our business development in Japan. We will continue not only to provide clinical data to a wide variety of clients, but also to integrate the PRA Group’s global footing and our high-level specialties in the development of medical and pharmaceutical products in Japan. By doing so, we will strive to establish a new and highly flexible clinical test implementation system in Japan.

Contact Information

Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, Kansai Bureau
International Investment Promotion Division
Address: 1-5-44 Otemae, Chuo-ku, Osaka, 540-8535
Phone：+81-6-6966-6033
E-Mail:bzl-invest-japan-kansai[atmark]meti.go.jp
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