In the last ten years,the Asian CRO industry has benchmarked its range of offerings to the requirements of global pharmaceutical/biotechnology players and has expanded/matured to cater to the growing demands of its customers.In the next phase of its development,the industry is now poised to play a strategic partnering role by supplementing or driving the innovation needs of its clients.Furthermore,there is an opportunity for such CROs to play a key role in building Asia-centric "innovation engines" not only for enhancing its business opportunities but also in building up capacity/capabilities for new drug discovery to address the unique healthcare needs of this region.