David Anderson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health
The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Anderson on 2016-01-05.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of demand for clinical trial capacity at UK muscle centres; and if he will make a statement.
George Freeman
The United Kingdom is a world–leader in neuromuscular research, bringing a combination of excellent translational science, well-defined patient cohorts and a sophisticated and successful clinical research system. These attributes make the UK an outstanding location for the global life sciences industry to undertake clinical trials and collaborate with leading clinical scientists.
The National Health Service and the Department’s National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) are working collaboratively to support the increasing number of clinical trials in neuromuscular disease.
The current pipeline of neuromuscular studies for 2016 includes four phase I studies, six phase II studies, three phase III studies and one phase IV study.
Currently, the most intensive trials are supported in Great Ormond Street Hospital, London and in the John Walton Neuromuscular Centre in Newcastle, where NIHR supports dedicated clinical research facilities alongside the Medical Research Council funded muscle research centres. These centres supported colleagues at Alder Hey Hospital, Liverpool, to collaborate in a recent study supported by the NIHR Alder Hey Clinical Research Facility.
Building on these successes, the NIHR is using its Clinical Research Network and Biomedical Research Centres to increase capacity and expertise at existing sites and prepare other muscle centres to be able to support the pipeline of studies. Additionally, NIHR leaders have engaged with patient organisations for neuromuscular disease and presented innovative models to enable charities to partner the NHS in developing more capacity in existing and new sites.
