What is your and KLIXAR’s background?
I have been working in the clinical research industry
for 10 years, starting with eight at Quintiles. I
started as part of a small group in Argentina
because that country was the headquarters for
Latin America. Later, I was in charge of supervising
a group of CRAs/PMs in Argentina and continued
later on overseeing the clinical operations in Peru,
Colombia, Costa Rica and Venezuela. Then I
worked at Parexel as a senior clinical operations
manager in charge of clinical and regulatory activities
in Argentina and Uruguay. I supervised five
clinical operations managers and indirectly 50
people. Then I made the decision to run my own
business here because I wanted to focus on the
small and medium-size clinical trials, which are
usually managed by small to medium-size biotech
and pharma, and to deliver a different service.We
want to be really close to our customers. That is
our main philosophy. By ‘customers,’ I am referring
not only to biotech and pharma, but also to
our employees.
What are the advantages of being in
Latin America?
Good investigators with good experience. I’ve
worked since 1998 in clinical research, so I know
the investigators in this region. I have more than
2,000 investigators in my database, but I rely on
about 800 of them. These are the investigators
who have very good experience. In some cases,
for example, people may be afraid to outsource
projects in Peru or Colombia, but I had the good
fortune of supervising activities there and I am
confident about the deliverables you can get
there. The experience is really good. The other
advantage is competitive costs in relation to the
U.S. or Europe. A higher patient recruitment rate
and lower costs per patient than in the U.S. and
Europe make Latin America an attractive region
for conducting clinical trials.
What challenges do you face?
The first challenge is to make our potential
customers aware of the Latin American region.
They feel uncomfortable to come to Latin America
because of probable preconceptions. Then also,
there are the regulatory timelines. In some countries,
the regulatory timelines may be considered
very long. For example, in Brazil, the timelines are
longer than in other countries in Latin America.
Brazil is difficult in terms of regulatory affairs.
That’s why in Brazil, I don’t provide direct operations.
I prefer to work with a partner that is a
local expert CRO. Those countries are the most
challenging.
Why did you name the company KLIXAR?
Klix is my second surname. In Latin America, we
have immigrants from different countries, and Klix
is German. When I was looking for a name that
could fit the company, I came up with many different
names. At the end I chose KLIXAR because it
would bring identity to the firm and also I liked the
sound.
What are your plans for growth?
We have operations now in Argentina, Peru,
Colombia and Costa Rica. This is the launch of
the company, here at Partnerships. The next step
will be to also have operations in Chile and in
Central America. But that will be once I feel
comfortable and the business is well-established
in the original countries. Then I will move forward
into the rest of the countries. I have signed
contracts with freelance monitors now, and I
have a good database of potential future CRAs
we would like to work with in the region.We
don’t want to be a large CRO. As the company
grows, new positions will be established to manage
staff and projects and run a regulatory
department, but mainly I want to supervise all
projects. It’s not just about the money. If I have
to reject a project because we are already running
many projects, I will. We need to keep a
balance because our main focus is to be close to
our customers.
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