Avance Clinical’s CEO Yvonne Lungershausen on Expanding Footprint in Asia-Pacific: A Strategic Focus on South Korea’s Clinical Excellence

In a recent conversation with Ankit Kankar from BioSpectrum Asia, Yvonne Lungershausen, CEO of Avance Clinical, shared insights into the company’s latest strategic moves in the Asia-Pacific region. With newly signed MOUs in South Korea, Avance Clinical aims to enhance its site relationships and leverage the country’s advanced healthcare infrastructure to support high-quality, expedited clinical trials. Lungershausen discussed the significance of these partnerships, the benefits for early-phase biotech clients, and how Avance Clinical plans to navigate the evolving regulatory landscape while prioritizing key therapeutic areas like oncology and rare diseases.

What strategic goals drive Avance Clinical’s expansion in Asia-Pacific through recent MOUs in South Korea?

Our strategic goal is to continually grow our best-in-class site relationships to support clinical development across our key therapeutic areas for regional biotechs, as well as bring our global clients to Korea for their later phase studies.

Korea, with its population of over 50 million, offers world-class medical research facilities, vast patient populations, and is consistently ranked as a global leader for quality and number of trials conducted.

Signing these important MOUs with 3 key sites, strengthens our clinical relationships in the region so we can further support biotech clients with our trademark agile, high-quality and streamlined approach to clinical trial delivery.

Following these MOUs, we are seeing increasing interest from other prominent hospitals eager to join us on this growth journey. These partnerships not only give our biotech clients access to top-tier research facilities and skilled investigators but also strengthen our patient recruitment capabilities. This collaborative approach, supported by leading clinical sites, allows us to generate high-quality data more rapidly, particularly in high-need therapeutic areas, and further positions Avance Clinical as a trusted partner for biotech companies looking to achieve clinical milestones efficiently in the Asia-Pacific region.

How does Avance Clinical plan to leverage South Korea’s advanced healthcare infrastructure for clinical trials?

South Korea has one of the most advanced healthcare systems in the world, with high standards in medical technology, patient care, and regulatory practices. Leveraging this infrastructure allows us to conduct complex, high-quality trials while meeting rigorous global standards. Our partnerships with premier institutions in Korea will facilitate seamless access to resources and support our focus on high-quality data generation, expedited recruitment, and the accelerated progression of early-phase trials, which are essential for biotech sponsors needing rapid results.

What specific benefits do these partnerships bring to early-phase biotech clients?

These established partnerships in South Korea allows faster access to advanced medical technology and experienced clinicians. Having these MOUs in place expedites feasibility and contracting activities, all supporting faster startup and trial completion.

Our partnerships also provide early-phase biotech clients with access to diverse patient populations and so faster patient recruitment which is critical for meeting trial timelines. 

What challenges does Avance Clinical face in Asia-Pacific’s regulatory landscape, particularly in South Korea?

Avance Clinical has an experienced in-house global scientific and regulatory team with key experts on the ground in the region. While we recognize the nuances of the regulatory environment in the different countries across Asia we also have the expertise and experience to manage the processes successfully in a streamlined and time effective manner. 

In the case of South Korea, Avance Clinical has consistently delivered regulatory approvals timelines that are comparable to Australia and the United States.

How will collaborations with CHA, Korea University Medicine, and Dong-A enhance your clinical trial capabilities?

These are institutions that bring specialized expertise and a strong track record of clinical research. Our MOUs allow us to more efficiently engage with these sites for our biotech clients, to deliver increasingly complex clinical trials.

Understanding the strengths and specific expertise of these institutions allow us to rapidly align them with the right trials.

What therapeutic areas or innovations are prioritized as Avance Clinical expands in Asia?

As we expand in Asia, we are prioritizing therapeutic areas where there is both high unmet need and significant research demand, such as oncology, central nervous system disorders, rare diseases, and infectious diseases. Our established relationships allow us to match innovative biotechs with innovative site partners.

Our partnerships in the region also support innovations in trial design, including adaptive and decentralized trials when suitable, enabling us to offer flexible solutions to our biotech clients.