Author: Peter Mansell

Spaulding Clinical Research, the US-based provider of clinical pharmacology and cardiac core-laboratory services, is joining the network of clinical trial sites that participate in clinicalRSVP’s Research Subject Verification Program.

A new ‘European Lead Factory’ to be set up under the EU’s Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) will combine a library of as many as 500,000 drug candidates from industry and academia with a high-throughput screening centre, in what the IMI called “an unprecedented effort to speed up the discovery of new medicines”.

Patient recruitment is expected to start this month in Salford, Greater Manchester for the first arm of a ‘real-world’ trial assessing the safety and effectiveness of Relovair, GlaxoSmithKline’s late-phase follow-up to its respiratory blockbuster Advair (salmeterol/fluticasone), in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and asthma.

The Drug Discovery Unit (DDU) at Scotland’s Dundee University has secured more than £10 million from the Wellcome Trust to research and develop safe and affordable treatments for neglected tropical diseases, including £8.6 million for a partnership between the university and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK).

Continuing its shift from transactional relationships towards strategic alliances with clients, ICON has been selected by Roche as technology partner for storing and managing medical images collected during the pharmaceutical company’s clinical research programmes.