December 30th was an exciting day for NeoGenomics as we got the keys to our new facility in Suzhou, China. Suzhou is about 60 miles from Shanghai and is the new home for PPD and NeoGenomics newest laboratory facility. This project has been underway for much of this year, and to actually get the keys and get inside our new space was good news indeed. WeiWei Zhao, our Asia Pacific Senior Director is shown above. WeiWei is based out of Singapore and flew to China where she had to quarantine in a hotel room for 14 days without ever leaving. It’s a tribute to her dedication that she gladly did this for us, and having her there has been terrific. Our first employees start on January 18th and we have equipment arriving that they’ll be setting up and performing qualifications upon. We’re hopeful to be open to test samples by the end of the first quarter. It has been quite a journey, and one that has been complicated several times by COVID-19, but we’re glad with teamwork and help from our friends at PPD we were able to meet our goal of being in the space by the end of 2020.
Neo will soon be one of a fairly limited group of CRO’s that can truly handle a global clinical trial, from the United States, to Europe (with our lab in Geneva), to Asia (Singapore) to China (Suzhou). We’re also building a network of partner labs in China to cover areas where we won’t be able to fully service in the short-term. We’ve had numerous inquiries about China from sponsors large and small and we’re happy that soon we will be able to fully service those needs in a Neo facility. Our teams can help ensure that assays are run in the exact same way across the globe at our various sites, with the same high quality and rapid turn-around-times. We have listened to our clients and they’ve said that we need to be in China, and now we really are. We’re even more unique in that we can provide great service to Pharma sponsors from the basic research lab work through the clinical trial phases. Once FDA approval is achieved we can help commercialize the test through our leading Clinical position in the United States. We continue to see strong growth in our CDx programs and having capabilities in China to service sponsors on the pre-approval side is another step in Neo’s goal to be the leading CDx provider from beginning to end. If you have an interest in placing studies in our China lab please let us know and we’re very much looking forward to a grand opening sometime in Q2.