Choosing a contract research organization is rarely a short-term decision. Most biopharmaceutical and medical device programs span years, sometimes moving through several therapeutic milestones and regulatory jurisdictions before a product reaches patients. For sponsors evaluating a CRO partner, questions of longevity, financial stability, and operational reach often matter as much as service quality on any single trial. Tigermed is one company frequently discussed in this context, given its two-decade operating history and its expansion from a single-market provider into a globally distributed clinical development organization.
From a Hangzhou Startup to a Full-Service CRO
Tigermed was founded in 2004 in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, China, at a time when the domestic contract research industry was still in an early stage of development. The company began by providing clinical research services and gradually expanded its service portfolio to cover additional stages of drug and medical device development
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Over the following two decades, this incremental build-out became a defining feature of the company’s growth strategy. Rather than expanding through a single service line, Tigermed added capabilities and subsidiaries in stages — including preclinical and bioanalytical services, data management, medical writing, regulatory affairs, and site management — so that sponsors could access multiple stages of drug and device development through a coordinated service platform rather than managing every stage through separate providers.
Public Listings and the “A + H” Capital Platform
A significant marker in Tigermed’s corporate history is its dual listing on two major exchanges. The company first listed on the ChiNext board of the Shenzhen Stock Exchange under stock code 300347.SZ. Nearly a decade later, on August 7, 2020, Tigermed completed a listing on the Main Board of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange under stock code 3347.HK, raising approximately HK$10,272.5 million in net proceeds from the offering.
According to the company’s own announcement, this Hong Kong listing established what Tigermed refers to as its “A + H” dual-capital platform, with proceeds earmarked for expanding service capabilities, funding potential acquisitions, developing technology to support clinical operations, and strengthening working capital for continued growth. For sponsors assessing a CRO’s staying power, a dual public listing is a relevant data point: it subjects the company to two sets of regulatory disclosure requirements and gives outside observers a continuous, auditable financial record — something private or thinly capitalized vendors cannot offer in the same way.
Building a Global Clinical Development Network
Much of Tigermed’s expansion beyond China has come through a combination of new subsidiaries, joint ventures, and acquisitions across multiple regions. Public company milestones list the addition of operations in Hong Kong, Taiwan, Australia, India, Switzerland, and the United States, alongside subsidiaries such as Frontage Laboratories — which itself listed separately on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange — and DreamCIS, a Korea-based clinical research provider.
This layered growth is reflected in the scale figures Tigermed currently reports: a network of more than 180 global offices and locations, over 10,000 employees, and relationships with more than 4200 customers worldwide. For a sponsor running a multi-region trial, this kind of footprint has practical implications — it can mean access to local regulatory knowledge, site relationships, and patient populations across several countries without needing to separately contract a CRO in each territory.
Full-Service Capabilities Across the Development Lifecycle
Tigermed structures its offerings around the different phases of product development. On the preclinical side, services include medicinal chemistry, compound screening, DMPK (drug metabolism and pharmacokinetics), safety and toxicology testing, bioanalytical work, and CMC (chemistry, manufacturing, and controls) support. Moving into clinical development, the company provides clinical monitoring, medical writing, regulatory affairs, data management and statistical analysis, site management (SMO), and support for decentralized and multi-region clinical trials, as well as dedicated services for medical device and IVD trials.
A set of integrated capabilities sits alongside these phase-based services, including central laboratories, pharmacovigilance, medical imaging, an EDC (electronic data capture) system, medical translation, quality assurance, and GMP consulting. Tigermed also reports therapeutic-area experience spanning oncology, hematology, cardiovascular disease, endocrinology, central nervous system disorders, infectious diseases, cell and gene therapy, and other specialized fields. This breadth allows a single CRO relationship to follow a molecule or device from early feasibility work through to post-marketing and real-world evidence studies.
What This Scale Means for Sponsors Selecting a Long-Term Partner
For a biopharmaceutical or medical device company evaluating CRO options, the underlying question is usually not which vendor can run a single study, but which partner can support a program reliably as it moves through multiple phases, geographies, and regulatory environments over several years. A company’s history, financial transparency as a listed entity, and demonstrated ability to expand into new markets are all reasonable inputs into that assessment — not as guarantees of outcome, but as indicators of operational continuity.
Tigermed’s trajectory — from a single-city CRO in 2004 to a dual-listed company with operations across a dozen of countries — illustrates one path that clinical research organizations can take as they scale to meet global sponsor demand. Sponsors researching the tigermed group’s current service lines, therapeutic expertise, and regional office locations can find further detail directly through the tigermed company website, where the organization publishes updated information on its capabilities, leadership, and corporate governance.
As with any CRO selection process, sponsors are advised to evaluate a provider’s specific experience in their therapeutic area and trial phase, request references, and confirm current regulatory standing before entering into a service agreement.
