BaltimoreSun.com

Shin Nippon Biomedical Laboratories Ltd., or SNBL, a Japan-based contract-research organization, is opening a clinical pharmacology center in the $300 million UM Biopark.

SNBL was founded in Kagoshima, Japan, in 1957 and currently maintains branches and subsidiary companies in the United States, China and Europe, with more than 1,100 employees worldwide. The newly established Baltimore-based subsidiary, SNBL Clinical Pharmacology Center, Inc., will assist U.S. pharmaceutical companies in bringing their products to market through product and development, SNBL said.

It expects to employ approximately 25 people when it begins operation late next summer.