For more than two decades, central laboratories have played an important part in running global and large multi-regional clinical trials in Europe and the United States. With the rapid increase in the number of global clinical trials in China and the Asia Pacific region, trial sponsors should understand how to choose central labs in those regions. Dr Chiew Yan Lee and Jerry Boxall of ACM Global Central Laboratory explain why trial sponsors will continue to require a separate central lab in China, and how these labs should be set up.