New whitepaper details the potential of High Throughput Centres to make U.K. country of choice for clinical research.
Maidenhead, United Kingdom, 8 October 2018 – A new whitepaper has been released outlining the substantial benefits NHS High Throughput Centres could bring to UK patients, the NHS and UK PLC. The set-up of High Throughput NHS Centres is crucial to making the UK competitive after Brexit.
High Throughput Centres focusing on late Phase II and Phase III trials, staffed with competent clinical professionals will facilitate the NHS and industry working together, collaboratively for the benefit of patients and all stakeholders. The Centres within the NHS have the potential to improve patient outcomes, provide cost efficiencies as well as attracting investors from overseas.
For patients, the Centres will provide access to the very latest medical developments with rapid access to trials, efficient services, and ease to network with other patients involved in trials within the site. Facilitating better care for patients through better adoption of innovative treatments and technologies; the set-up, competence and expertise within the Centres will provide better patient outcomes.
“By focusing on collaboration between the clinical research industry and the NHS we can harmonise and improve the clinical research process for both patients and the industry; ultimately working to get new treatments available for patients in a more efficient, but equally robust, way,” explained Jonathan Sheffield, CEO of the NIHR Clinical Research Network. “The NIHR is actively working to facilitate partnerships between Industry and the NHS; the introduction of High Throughput Centres would extend the work we’ve already begun and accelerate the process to the advantage of those requiring new treatments, as well as the industry.”
Commercially the clinical research industry is worth approximately £115billion per year globally. The UK sector (commercial and non-commercial combined) is estimated to be worth £10billion and saves the NHS £10s millions per annum. High Throughput Clinical Research Centres can provide a major contribution to the way in which clinical trials are conducted in the UK. Creating a benchmark of best practice, robust, standard frameworks for ensuring competence which support the U.K. in being a Centre of Excellence for conducting clinical trials. A High Throughput Centre is staffed by the NHS with clinical professionals that are competent in conducting clinical trials and whose work is dedicated entirely to this purpose.
“High Throughput Centres just make sense for the international clinical research industry as well as for the U.K. specifically,” said Jacqueline Johnson North, CEO and co-founder of IAOCR who have published the whitepaper. “The industry, working collaboratively with the NHS, could improve the NHS patient journey with increased awareness and improved availability of clinical trials that could accelerate treatment options and ultimately patient outcomes. Furthermore, they could re-establish the benchmark the industry works to; with an emphasis on the competency of those conducting the research and an accountability to work in the most effective, efficient way; putting the U.K. at the centre of the international clinical research business.”
