{"id":2630,"date":"2019-05-16T09:28:15","date_gmt":"2019-05-16T09:28:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/?p=2630"},"modified":"2020-02-18T15:59:17","modified_gmt":"2020-02-18T15:59:17","slug":"ireland-become-leader-in-clinical-research","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/oncology\/ireland-become-leader-in-clinical-research\/","title":{"rendered":"Can Ireland become a leader in clinical research?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div style=\"background-color:#f2f2f2;color:#32373c\" class=\"wp-block-atomic-blocks-ab-profile-box round ab-has-avatar ab-font-size-14 ab-block-profile ab-profile-columns\"><div class=\"ab-profile-column ab-profile-avatar-wrap\"><div class=\"ab-profile-image-wrap\"><figure class=\"ab-profile-image-square\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"1201\" class=\"ab-profile-avatar wp-image-2631\" src=\"https:\/\/s3.eu-north-1.amazonaws.com\/cdn-site.mediaplanet.com\/app\/uploads\/sites\/94\/2019\/05\/07211411\/P4-Main-Itziar-Canamasas.jpg\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/s3.eu-north-1.amazonaws.com\/cdn-site.mediaplanet.com\/app\/uploads\/sites\/94\/2019\/05\/07211411\/P4-Main-Itziar-Canamasas.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/s3.eu-north-1.amazonaws.com\/cdn-site.mediaplanet.com\/app\/uploads\/sites\/94\/2019\/05\/07211411\/P4-Main-Itziar-Canamasas-125x125.jpg 125w, https:\/\/s3.eu-north-1.amazonaws.com\/cdn-site.mediaplanet.com\/app\/uploads\/sites\/94\/2019\/05\/07211411\/P4-Main-Itziar-Canamasas-768x769.jpg 768w, https:\/\/s3.eu-north-1.amazonaws.com\/cdn-site.mediaplanet.com\/app\/uploads\/sites\/94\/2019\/05\/07211411\/P4-Main-Itziar-Canamasas-600x600.jpg 600w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\" \/><\/figure><\/div><\/div><div class=\"ab-profile-column ab-profile-content-wrap\"><h2 class=\"ab-profile-name\" style=\"color:#32373c\">Itziar Canamasas<\/h2><p class=\"ab-profile-title\" style=\"color:#32373c\">Managing Director, Bayer Ireland and Strategy Board Member, IPHA<\/p><div class=\"ab-profile-text\"><\/div><ul class=\"ab-social-links\"><\/ul><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p style=\"text-align:left\"><em>Collaboration with all stakeholders is needed to ensure patients don\u2019t miss out on potentially life-saving clinical trials in Ireland. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\" \/>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-color has-very-dark-gray-color\">Ireland can become a European leader when it comes to conducting <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cancertrials.ie\/about-trials\/what-is-a-cancer-trial\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" aria-label=\"clinical trials (opens in a new tab)\">clinical trials<\/a>. If we collaborate and focus on reducing delays and improving recruitment targets, according to the Irish Pharmaceutical Healthcare Association (IPHA). Research recently conducted by IPHA shows that, despite being home to nine of the 10 largest pharmaceutical companies in the world, Ireland is not currently as strong a location for clinical trials in comparison to similar-sized countries, such as Denmark.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Clinical trials are vital for boosting innovation<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The research shows interesting results. For instance, on average, it takes about eight months to recruit the first patient into a clinical trial in Ireland. That figure is in detail based on 90 trials set up between 2013 and 2018 across 11 therapy areas and all four phases of the clinical development process.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>This delay has in fact potentially far-reaching consequences. Most importantly for patients who are missing out on opportunities to access what could be life-saving medication. And also contribute toward the development of improved detection techniques and diagnosis. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-color has-very-dark-gray-color\"><strong>Dr Itziar Canamasas, Managing Director of global life sciences company Bayer and IPHA strategy board member, explains the importance of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/oncology\/how-cancer-drug-trial-changed-my-life\/?\">clinical trials<\/a>: <\/strong>\u201cAs well as the positive impact for patients, clinical trials enhance the value proposition for innovation on which Ireland needs to keep working to secure future global investment in manufacturing and discovery activity against significant competition.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Following Denmark\u2019s example <\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Furthermore, looking to Denmark, a country of similar size, it had approximately three times the number of registered studies at the end of 2018 compared with Ireland. Notwithstanding these higher numbers, it currently takes six months to recruit a patient into clinical trials in Denmark compared to eight months in Ireland. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Canamasas, on the other hand, sees no reason why Ireland can\u2019t emulate Denmark\u2019s success and become a more attractive location for clinical research. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Working\ntogether to realise a shared ambition<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Canamasas is quick to point out that\npharmaceutical companies alone can\u2019t drive progress. Change requires commitment\nfrom a far broader cohort of stakeholders including, policy makers, hospitals,\npatient groups and university institutes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To further the discussion on collaboration, Canamasas presented the IPHA survey findings at the Health Research Board &#8211; Clinical Research Coordination Ireland (HRB CRCI) conference on 13 May. Reporting on the conference feedback, she says, \u201cThere was a strong consensus that there is scope for us to further build Ireland&#8217;s credentials as a location for clinical trials and that this will require active collaboration among us all.&#8221; <\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Standardised clinical trial agreements<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>However, as a starting point, IPHA are proposing we look to implement standardised clinical trial agreements. These are already in place in a number of other EU countries. For instance that we protect research time for clinicians and hospital staff; and we use more realistic targets when starting clinical trials, this means meeting a lower recruitment target is better than partially meeting a higher target.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Overcoming\nchallenges<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>The task in hand is considerable, but Canamasas believes Ireland has all the ingredients for success. \u201cWe have all the major international pharmaceutical innovation companies in Ireland. We also have highly regarded health professionals who are seen globally as key opinion leaders. There are positive signs that the public policy environment is shifting favorably to supporting this ambition for Ireland,\u201d she says confidently.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>ECRIN\nrepresents huge opportunity<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Her position is buoyed by Ireland\u2019s recent\ndecision to join the European Clinical Research Infrastructure Network (ECRIN),\nopening opportunities for pan-European clinical trials which has the potential to give us access to large\npopulations of patients and collaborations across countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Moreover, on a broader scale, there has never been a more exciting time for innovation within the pharmaceutical industry. Across the industry, new technologies, such as artificial intelligence, are opening up opportunities within clinical research. Such developments could help to support the new wave of clinical trials that Canamasas hopes to see in Ireland very soon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Collaboration with all stakeholders is needed to ensure patients don\u2019t miss out on potentially life-saving clinical trials in Ireland. Ireland can become a European leader when it comes to conducting clinical trials. If we collaborate and focus on reducing delays and improving recruitment targets, according to the Irish Pharmaceutical Healthcare Association (IPHA). Research recently conducted &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/oncology\/ireland-become-leader-in-clinical-research\/\">Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":2632,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2856],"tags":[2859],"class_list":["post-2630","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-oncology","tag-innovation-in-oncology-2019"],"acf":[],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/s3.eu-north-1.amazonaws.com\/cdn-site.mediaplanet.com\/app\/uploads\/sites\/94\/2019\/05\/07211410\/p4-Main-GettyImages-Kkolosov-600x400.jpg","featured_image_src_square":"https:\/\/s3.eu-north-1.amazonaws.com\/cdn-site.mediaplanet.com\/app\/uploads\/sites\/94\/2019\/05\/07211410\/p4-Main-GettyImages-Kkolosov-600x600.jpg","author_info":{"display_name":"Your Future Career","author_link":"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/author\/harveyodonnell\/"},"vicky_index_order":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2630","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2630"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2630\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4110,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2630\/revisions\/4110"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2632"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.healthnews.ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}