The new initiative aims to accelerate clinical trials of new drugs to improve patient care.
The creation of the brand-new center aims to revolutionize the approach to clinical trial design and conduct by developing pioneering methods that speed up the process and promote improved treatment and recovery.
The Medical Research Council (MRC) Clinical Trials Innovation Center of Research Excellence (CoRE), in partnership with the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), will receive up to £50 million to deliver this.
Lord Vallance, UK Science Secretary, said: “Clinical trials are essential for turning promising research into real-world treatments, but they often take a long time.
“By investing £50m in this new center, we will help speed up the process so patients can access life-changing medicines faster, while maintaining our rigorous processes.”
Improving clinical trial efficiency
One key area of focus is moving away from the current approach of testing single interventions for single diseases one at a time.
Developing new and efficient ways to simultaneously test multiple drugs across multiple diseases in clinical trials has the potential to be transformative for both industry and the academic community.
“This is another example of the UK leading in innovation in trial design, accelerating the delivery of clinical trials and accelerating the use of targeted and effective treatments and technologies for patients through research,” commented Professor Lucy Chappell, Principal Scientific Adviser to the Department of Health and Social Care and Chief Executive Officer of the NIHR.
Another key focus is using clinical trials to identify the minimum “intensity”, such as duration, frequency, and dose, required for a drug to be effective.
For example, finding the lowest effective dose of a chemotherapy drug could reduce side effects and make cancer treatment more patient-friendly.
A life-changing breakthrough
The MRC CoRE, led by Professor Max Palmer, will build on the pioneering work of the MRC Clinical Trials Unit, which has developed a highly innovative ‘multi-arm, multi-stage’ platform clinical trial.
These designs have revolutionized clinical trials, making them more flexible and allowing new drugs to be added or removed from trials over time depending on results and breakthroughs.
Professor Palmer explained: “Basic science is rapidly improving our understanding of biology, resulting in many new interventions that benefit a variety of diseases, both through industrial and academic routes.
“But they are too slow and too expensive; it takes about 20 years, at great expense, to move a new invention from the laboratory to everyday clinical practice.”
He added: “Our goal with this CoRE is to significantly reduce this time, allowing patients to benefit from new treatments sooner and reducing the cost of testing new treatments.”
Collaboration of experts from across the industry
To ensure widespread adoption, CoRE will collaborate with more than 60 organizations around the world, including researchers, physicians, statisticians, pharmaceutical companies, and regulatory authorities, to develop and implement these new trial designs.
The leadership group includes the following researchers:
University College London (UCL) London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine University of Cambridge University of Edinburgh University of Birmingham University of Newcastle
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