NEWS
INDUSTRY VIEWPOINT with JASON BRANNON Chart. PR, MCIPR, Dip CIPR, MIoD,
director at health association Medilink North of England Developing advanced therapies
The national strategy to scale-up the development of advanced therapies for a range of debilitating conditions will guarantee that more patients benefit from a new generation of disease-fighting medicines. Aptus Clinical has recently been awarded funding to help make this happen. Medilink North of England is a membership-based representative body for the healthcare technology sector, and is part of the national Medilink UK Network. We were delighted when our member Aptus Clinical was selected as one of 12 partners to share in £7 million funding from Innovate UK to lead the way in developing advanced therapies.
Aptus is a contract clinical research organisation which specialises in the design, conduct and delivery of early phase clinical studies, with a particular focus in oncology, rare disease and cell and gene therapies.
It will be providing clinical operations to support the Innovate Manchester Advanced Therapy Centre Hub (iMATCH) consortium and to develop innovative solutions for clinical data capture and presentation, incorporating novel areas such as sample tracking and predictive modelling.
Cell therapies use patients’ own cells to treat disease, and currently clinical trials for these advanced therapies are highly complex and logistically very challenging and expensive to run. Manchester is one of only three centres that will be established
to support this national strategy, and the consortium includes The Christie, the University of Manchester, the Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust, AgenTus Therapeutics, AstraZeneca (iDecide Programme), Asymptote (part of GE Healthcare), Chaucer Life Sciences, Cellular Therapeutics, The Christie Pathology
Partnership, Datatrial and Formedix. The project is another example of Northern Powerhouse economies thriving, and during the three year project the iMATCH consortium will invest in systems, processes and integration infrastructure to help make the process of running the trials as efficient as possible, enabling larger clinical trials to be available to more patients. The consortium is aiming to recruit 260 patients to the clinical trials in advanced therapies, and by the time that the project comes to a close in 2021, five times more patients than currently should be being treated with personalised medicine each year in Manchester. Through partnering with life science companies, Aptus is dedicated to ‘Developing Valued Medicines’, ensuring that early clinical development strategies are optimised, and that Phase I/II studies are both innovatively designed and expertly delivered. It’s an exciting time for the company and it’s great to see a Medilink member as part of the driving force behind such an important development.
Not only do they get the opportunity to work and build relationships with some fantastic local partners, but Aptus will be right at the heart of a world leading centre of excellence that will be developing life changing therapies for patients in Manchester and beyond.
www.medilink.co.uk https://twitter.com/MedilinkNOE
#TransformingHealthcare
www.aptusclinical.com https://twitter.com/aptusclinical #DevelopingValuedMedicines
Combatting children’s anxiety prior to general anaesthesi a
Researchers in Sheffield are to lead a first of its kind study investigating a new way of combatting pre-operative anxiety in children who would not otherwise tolerate a general anaesthetic when undergoing planned ENT and dental surgeries. The £1.65 million study, with funding from the National Institute for Health Research, will be led by a team of researchers from Sheffield Teaching Hospitals, Sheffield Children’s Hospital and the University of Sheffield, across at least 10 UK sites. It will be the first to specifically analyse whether a premedication known as melatonin can be used as a potential calmer in nervous children needing a general anaesthetic when having surgery for dental and ear, nose and throat-related problems. Previous studies have focused on the experience of all children
having ENT and dental surgeries rather than just ones who need a premedication to reduce anxiety.
Joined by researchers from Barnsley, Dundee, Liverpool and Manchester, the team will specifically seek to establish if melatonin has fewer side effects and can be offered as a safer alternative to the current recommended therapy, midazolam. The study will seek to recruit over 600 parents/carers from at least 10 UK centres. If melatonin is found to be a better premedication than midazolam, the researchers hope to change NHS policy. Professor Chris Deery, a paediatric consultant at the School of Clinical Dentistry, University of Sheffield and Sheffield Teaching Hospitals Foundation Trust, said: “The hospital anaesthetic room can be a
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worrying place for a child, and reducing preoperative anxiety can have a huge impact on a child’s hospital experience, improving recovery from the anaesthetic, reducing pain after surgery and avoiding the need for unnecessary reappointments and delays to operations. “Although midazolam is an effective premedication for anxiety, it has many well known side effects, including loss of coordination and risks to breathing. Through this study we hope to improve the child’s overall experience by establishing if a safer, alternative premedication can be offered. The Melatonin for Anxiety prior to General Anaesthesia In Children (MAGIC) trial opens for recruitment in early 2019, with findings anticipated to be available in late 2020/early 2021.
JUNE 2018
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