UK and Ireland to join forces in clinical research

Image courtesy NIAID

And the scope of the scheme has been extended to include the Republic of Ireland, with the Health Research Board of Ireland providing £8 million funding to run a new centre in Dublin, to be built with money from the research charity, the Wellcome Trust.

Bidding for the funds was managed by the Wellcome Trust, which with its counterpart the Wolfson Foundation is contributing £30 million to the scheme to create centres where universities and hospitals can cooperate in the conduct of clinical trials.

The centres will be established as part of the UK Clinical Research Collaboration (UKCRC), set up by the government with the aim of making the UK the best location in the world for carrying out clinical trials.

The UKCRC is not a contract research organisation, but will provide and coordinate access to patients. The need for greater investment in clinical research was highlighted in BioScience 2015, a report sponsored by the biotech industry, which pointed out the UK was not realising the commercial – or the health – potential of clinical research carried out in the NHS.

Setting up the centres is expected to make a difference to smaller biotechs that increasingly need clinical data alongside preclinical toxicology data to be able to out license their products. It is hoped that in the long run clinical trials processes will be speeded up, benefiting all companies sponsoring trials in the UK.

Research networks

A key component of the UKCRC is the creation of dedicated research networks that will bring together all UK activities in individual disease areas. Since UKCRC was founded in 2004 networks in children’s medicines, mental health, Alzheimer's disease, diabetes and stroke have been set up, based on the model provided by the National Cancer Research Institute, established in 2001. Over time, all diseases will have a dedicated research network.

Other contributors to the clinical trials centres are the British Heart Foundation, Cancer Research UK, the UK Medical Research Council, and the UK Department of Health.

Apart from Dublin, the centres will be based in Belfast, Birmingham, Cambridge, Edinburgh, the Institute of Cancer Research in London, Imperial College London, King’s College London, Manchester, Newcastle, Oxford and University College London.

A coup for Ireland

Getting in on the act is a major coup for Dublin’s three medical schools, which cooperated in submitting a bid for funds. “This is one of the most significant developments in Irish health research in a generation,” said Ruth Barrington, Chief Executive of the Health Research Board.

This view was endorsed by the Tánaiste (Deputy Prime Minister) and Minister for Health and Children, Mary Harney. “This HRB/Wellcome Trust Clinical Research Centre will provide a means for clinicians, the health care industry and other key partners to test innovative therapies, technologies and products and increase the speed at which scientific discoveries and innovations can be translated into improved patient care,” she said.