Pfizer Plans to Disclose Payments Made to Clinical Investigators

According to Clinical Trials Today, Pfizer plans to publicly report payments made to clinical investigators, physicians and other health care professionals by early next year, making it the first pharmaceutical company to commit to disclosing payments it makes for conducting clinical trials, speaking and consulting. It seems that Pfizer wants to aim for transparency of their practices, perhaps providing an easier system of due diligence within the pharmaceutical and CRO/Clinical Trials arenas. What do you think of this move by Pfizer?

Covance Opens Offices in Ukraine, Slovakia and Israel

Earlier today I came across this post on the Future of Biopharma blog that highlighted an article on ClinicalTrialsToday that details the recent expansion of three new clinical development offices Covance has opened in Central and Eastern Europe and the Middle East.

The purpose of the new offices is to speed clinical trials and develop strategic relationships in those areas. The new offices will be located in Kiev, Ukraine; Bratislava, Slovakia; and Tel Aviv, Israel. Covance has been providing services already in these parts for quite some time, but now these locations will support staff and the CRO’s regional network of field-based clinical research associates.

Drug CROs: Good Medicine for Investors

According to The Motley Fool, CROs are a solid investment for investors because they have experienced substantial growth because of increased research and development outsourcing by the biopharmaceutical industry. They outline specific CROs to watch in the coming years. What do you think? In a tough economic environment--are CROs solid for investment?

Mayo Clinic Pulls Out of Clinical Services

Outsourcing-pharma.com has recently reported that the world-renowned Mayo Clinic has shut its doors on clinical services due to increased competition from other companies driving outsourcing of clinical trials to emerging countries such as Latin America, Asia, and Eastern Europe.

Mayo Clinic has mentioned in their statement that they will no longer accept contracts and that 30 employees would lose their job straight away. The statement reads:

“This decision will allow Mayo to focus its efforts on its successful and growing clinical reference laboratory business, Mayo Medical Laboratories, which provides ... laboratory testing services to clients throughout the world.”

Reducing Costs and Time of Cancer Trials

Outsourcing-pharma.com reports that a non-profit group made up of CEOs of drugmakers working in oncology hopes to shorten the drug testing process by making a “common language” available for clinical trial contracts through a set of standardized templates.

It is speculated that this procedure can cut contract negotiation times from 300 days to 30 days. This is coming at a crucial time in the pharma industry since the number of oncology clinical trials rose by 13 percent last year. The templates were part of a 14-month project which was led by the CEO Roundtable on Cancer's Life Sciences Consortium (LSC), a task force of CEO Roundtable members in the oncology pharmaceutical/biotechnology industries in conjunction with the NCI.

China is Ahead of India in Outsourced Trials

According to a new report conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), China continues to lead India in outsourcing of clinical trials to Asia. Pharmatimes.com reports that while India has lead in the past, now China has 870 trials registered or underway compared with 737 trials in India.

Findings from the PwC report proves indications that were made last autumn that China was pulling ahead of India as a preferred location for clinical trials. Read the full article here.

Gryphon Investors Invests in CROs

PharmaTimes reports Gryphon Investors has announced an agreement with two US suppliers of clinical services to pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries.

Gryphon has invested funds in Synteract, which is a CRO with expertise in oncology and central nervous system drugs, and Vince Associates, which is a leading provider of services that specialize in sleep disorders research. Nick Orum, head of Gryphon’s Business Services Group mentions that the agreement has been a “year-long effort … to become an active participant in the dynamic, growing field of outsourced drug development services”.

Covance Signs New Deal with Eli Lilly & CO

NJBIZ reports that the Princeton-based drug development company Covance Inc. entered into a $1.6 billion contract research deal with Eli Lilly & Co. of Indianapolis.

Covance will buy Eli Lilly’s 450 acre Greenfield Laboratories in Indiana for $50 million instead of just supplying outsourced clinical trials and testing work. Covance will take take complete responsibility for all testing and R&D support activities for Lilly at the site, and that is how this approach differs from typical practices states Wendel Barr, COO of Covance.

Covance will utilize over 260 Lilly staffers at the Greenfield campus. The COO expected work to start the day after the contract is signed, which is expected to be in October. Read the full article here.

Encorium Group Announces $3.5 Million of New Contracts for Clinical Trials for Vaccines

MarketWatch reports that Encorium Group, Inc, which is a multi-national contract research organization, has announced the signing of $3.5 million of new business contracts with a global biopharmaceutical company.

This contract will cover clinical trials in the field of vaccines for infectious diseases in multiple European countries. Kenneth M. Borow, M.D., Encorium Group's President mentions:

"With the signing of these contracts, Encorium has announced approximately $13.5 million of new business during the past three weeks. In aggregate, these new contracts represent both repeat and new client business and cover a wide array of therapeutic areas for multiple small as well as large biopharmaceutical companies. Encorium will provide clinical trial services for these studies on three continents including North America, Europe, and South America. We are very encouraged about our company's ability to win new business, especially as we move forward with our globalization efforts."

Costs Are Too Much for a Drug Trial Center in Indianapolis

This article in the Indy Star reports that the Lilly Center for Medical Science will end clinical trials in Indianapolis later on this year. Many drugs that treat diabetes and depression grew out of research from the Lilly Center, but now early stage – Phase 1 trials in the United States are no longer cost-effective, and so most companies have begun to outsource their clinical trials.

Lilly is not getting out of early-stage drug trials altogether, but it has created a partnership with Covance in which they will conduct majority of the trials elsewhere. Covance already does preclinical toxicology testing for Lilly, but now it will conduct several more clinical trials. Working more closely with Covance will allow Lilly to get drugs out to the market faster and cheaper than before.

OCT Opens Office in New Markets

Clinical Trials Today reports that the Russian based contract research organization (OCT) Outsourcing Clinical Trials will expand its market by opening up a new office in Belarus.

Outside of Western Europe and North America, Central and Eastern Europe represent the largest number of global trial initiations. Ekaterina Mochalova, business development manager at OCT mentions, “Belarus is a very attractive region to conduct clinical trials, from our point of view.” What makes Belarus an attractive place for CROs is low competition among ongoing clinical trials, and a healthcare system that is still centralized which allows companies to enroll more patients at fewer investigative sites.

Phase II Patient Recruitment for TPI ASM8 Completed

TOPIGEN Pharmaceuticals, has announced that patient recruitment and enrollment for the Phase II safety and efficacy study for TPI ASM8 drug has been successfully completed. It is an inhaled, anti-inflammatory drug for treatment of moderate to severe asthmas. Chief Development Officer for TOPIGEN, Mark Parry-Billings, had this to say about completion at this stage:

"The completion of patient recruitment in this Phase II trial is on schedule, and represents a significant clinical achievement for TOPIGEN. We look forward to completing the study and reporting on data at the end of this year.”

Billings also had this to add:

“There is a significant clinical need for improved medications to treat this patient group, particularly those patients who do not respond adequately to conventional medication. TPI ASM8 has the potential to provide an effective and well-tolerated approach to improve asthma control in these patients, and has the added advantage over other pipeline products of being delivered simply by inhalation."