Pharmaceutical Product Development (PPD), a global CRO based in Wilmington, N.C., and Japan-based Shin Nippon Biomedical Laboratories (SNBL) have formed a joint venture to provide a full range of clinical development services in Japan, including phase I-IV clinical trial monitoring, project management, site intelligence and activation, biostatistics, data management, medical writing, pharmacovigilance, regulatory and FSP services.

The joint venture, to be named PPD-SNBL, will result from the combination of SNBL’s clinical research division and PPD’s clinical development operations in Japan, and will have offices in Tokyo, Osaka and Kagoshima with approximately 400 clinical development professionals. This combination brings together PPD’s global clinical trial experience with SNBL’s nearly 20-year history of providing clinical development services for biopharmaceutical companies in Japan.

PPD-SNBL will be majority owned by PPD. Ryoichi Nagata M.D., Ph.D., chairman and president of SNBL, will be president of the joint venture.

The companies also have entered into an agreement to collaborate in a number of areas outside of the clinical development joint venture in Japan. This collaboration will involve SNBL’s early stage businesses (including translational research out-licensing business), phase I services in the U.S. for Japanese bridging studies, specialized neuroscience studies, vaccines studies and biologic studies, phase I services in Japan, Japanese bioanalysis services and site management services in Japan.

David Simmons, chairman and CEO of PPD, said, “PPD-SNBL will be one of the largest clinical development service providers in Japan, both for clients seeking to conduct global clinical trials and also for trials based solely in Japan, and builds on the shared commitment of both organizations to the delivery of high-quality clinical development services.”

The transactions are subject to customary closing conditions and are expected to close in April 2015.