Parexel and CTC North Collaborate to Increase Research Capacity to Conduct Early Clinical Trials
25.11.2020 10:08
Parexel, a leading provider of solutions that accelerate the development and delivery of innovative therapies - from clinical phase to market - to improve the health of people around the world, announces strategic partnership: its Early Phase Clinical Unit (EPCU ) in Berlin will in future work with Clinical Trial Center (CTC) North, a full-service contract research institute at the University Hospital Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE).
According to the company, the strategic collaboration supports the high demand for and continuation of early clinical trials during the COVID-19 pandemic, enables optimal use of resources and provides additional bed capacity for healthy volunteers and patients to continue early-stage research guarantee. A central point of the cooperation will be the introduction and implementation of Parexel's eSource system “ClinBase” at CTC North to promote efficiency and collaboration.
“We are very pleased to partner with CTC North, leveraging the broad expertise of both partners to provide a unique solution for clinical pharmacology research in healthy volunteers and patients,” said Dr. Sandra Stark, Head of the Berlin EPCU and Interim Head, Global EPCUs. “Using ClinBase as an eSource system will support studies in data management, allowing for maximum time savings for post-hospital services.”
Several ongoing and recently approved studies, as well as biosimilar, COVID-19, food interaction and bioavailability studies, etc., are being conducted at CTC North. CTC North and its Clinical Pharmacology Department have been collaborating with UKE for more than 10 years, primarily in developing vaccines and conducting first-in-human studies.
“We are pleased about the opportunity to now enter into a partnership with the company after many years of collaboration with Parexel’s EPCU in Berlin,” said Ralf Freese, Medical Director and Deputy Chairman of the BVMA (Federal Association of Medical Contracting Institutes). “We combine the excellence of Parexel with CTC North’s access to one of the most modern clinics in Europe at the UKE as well as specialists from all medical areas under one roof.”
In addition to the Berlin EPCU, Parexel's early clinical development footprint also includes EPCUs in Baltimore and Los Angeles (USA) and London (UK), totaling more than 300 beds and over 35 patient populations. This global network enables clients to conduct Phase I trials at multiple sites simultaneously with integrated technology for real-time decision making. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Parexel has adapted its early clinical trial facilities and processes to mitigate the risks of virus transmission. Each of the Company's units can support product development related to COVID-19. Flexible capacity models and decentralized clinical trial processes have been implemented wherever possible to advance early-stage research for COVID-19 therapies.