A new £50 million ($67 million) Medical Research Council Centre is set to overhaul clinical trials for UK patients. 

The Medical Research Council Centre of Research Excellence in Clinical Trial Innovation, in partnership with the National Institute for Health and Care Research, will receive up to £50 million ($67 million) over 14 years with the ambition of transforming the clinical trial landscape. 

 The centre plans to shake-up approaches to clinical trial design and delivery by developing pioneering new ways to speed up the process and drive improvements in treatment and recovery. 

“Clinical trials are vital for turning promising research into real treatments, but they often take a long time,” said Science Minister Lord Patrick Vallance. 

 “By investing £50 million in this new centre, we’re helping to speed up the process so patients can access life-changing medicines sooner, with a process that is as rigorous. 

 “Bringing forward more effective and targeted treatments will also ease pressure on the NHS, helping to improve care for people across the country.” 

Centre to look at ‘underserved areas’ of research

One of the centre’s key areas of focus will be to transform the move away from the current approach of testing a single intervention in a single disease one at a time. Developing new efficient ways to test multiple drugs in multiple diseases simultaneously could be a game changer both for industry and the academic community.   

 Another significant area of focus is using clinical trials to identify minimum ‘intensity’ such as duration, frequency, or dose required for a drug to be effective. For instance, finding the lowest effective dose of a chemotherapy drug could help make cancer treatment gentler for patients by reducing side effects. 

 “The UK medical research community is very effective at gaining insights about disease biology and developing potential new treatments and interventions,” added Professor Patrick Chinnery, Medical Research Council Executive Chair. 

“It is essential to quickly move such interventions forward to the right patients, at the right doses, durations and combinations.  

“The MRC is delighted to be supporting this new methodology-focused CoRE towards faster patient impact of our research, especially with their plans to address underserved areas such as multiple long-term conditions and rare diseases.” 

To ensure widespread adoption, the CoRE will work with collaborators from more than 60 organisations worldwide, including researchers, doctors, statisticians, drug companies and regulatory bodies both to develop and implement these new trial designs. 

 

Bruno Quinney, Content Team, DDW