For more than 40 years, Quality Assistance has been supporting the development of innovative medicines through its expertise in analytical sciences. Based in Thuin and employing 280 people, the Walloon company has built a reputation extending far beyond Belgium’s borders. Its success was recently recognised with an award at the 2026 Wallonia International Business Awards.
For more than 40 years, Quality Assistance has operated as a CRO (Contract Research Organization) specialising in analytical sciences applied to the development of innovative medicines. “This encompasses all the regulatory, scientific and technological expertise that must be brought together to demonstrate the quality, safety and efficacy of a medicine before it reaches the market. Demonstrating these different parameters requires measurements and analyses, and that is precisely what we do,” explains Nathalie Draux, CEO of Quality Assistance.
Once all the analyses have been completed, Quality Assistance generates data that are provided to clients in the form of digital reports. “These data are used by our clients to compile their registration dossiers. These are the dossiers they submit to regulatory authorities, mainly in Europe and the United States, in order to obtain marketing authorisation for these medicines,” adds Nathalie Draux.
Based in Thuin, Quality Assistance currently employs 280 people at a 13,500 m² site. Since the company was founded, more than 2,000 drug candidates have been entrusted to the Walloon company. “Sixty-five percent of our clients are international, including 10% in the United States, while 35% are based in Belgium. The proportion of Belgian clients is currently increasing. This demonstrates just how dynamic, innovative and high-performing Belgium’s life sciences ecosystem is,” she says.
“What sets us apart from our competitors internationally is a combination of many factors. If I had to highlight just a few, I would sum them up in four words: expertise, proximity, adaptability and quality. Expertise, because we specialise in the analysis of medicines under development. This is where we invest in both skills and capacity. Proximity, because there is a genuine closeness between the founders, shareholders and the team. There is also close collaboration between our teams, as they are all based at a single site, together with all our technologies. And there is proximity to our clients, because we truly see ourselves as an extension of their own teams.
“Adaptability, because while we have our own procedures and protocols, our entire system can be tailored to our clients’ specific needs at every stage of drug development. And finally, quality—whether regulatory, scientific, technological or even in terms of relationships—because we operate in an environment that demands a very high level of quality in line with international reference standards,” explains the CEO of Quality Assistance.
An Award at the Wallonia International Business Awards
Quality Assistance recently received the 2026 Wallonia International Business Award – Special Jury Prize. Since 1991, the Grand Prix Wallonie à l’Exportation, renamed the Wallonia International Business Awards in 2022, has recognised, every two years, the efforts and achievements of Walloon companies in international markets. The awards highlight businesses that contribute both to their own international reputation and to the global image of Walloon products, services and expertise.
“This award is recognition of many things. It recognises a success story: creating a company and successfully developing it in terms of size, expertise and markets. It is, of course, also recognition of the entire team, without whom it would not have been possible to grow in such a sustainable way,” said Nathalie Draux as she accepted the award.
Isabelle Anneet (AWEX)
