ClinResearch, a contract research organisation based in South Africa and with a track record of running trials in eight African countries, is the latest recruit to the Agile Clinical Network for global studies established last year by Health Decisions.
A full-service clinical research organisation headquartered in Durham, US and specialising in adaptive trial solutions, Health Decisions formed the network as a community of research partners that could eliminate the information gaps and time lags inherent in complex global clinical studies.
It characterises the Agile Clinical Network as “a global infrastructure of free-standing yet integrated research modules, each of which is held to stringent standards of research quality and regulatory compliance, yet is individually empowered to affect operational efficiency and capitalise on region-specific cultural expertise”.
Network partners have to undergo training and certification in Agile Clinical Development, a methodology that combines adaptive trial design with adaptive operations to cut study timelines and improve transparency. According to Health Decisions, the methodology can shorten a client’s development cycle by 10-40%, simply through focusing on operational efficiencies.
“The Agile methodology ensures that each network partner functions as part of a cohesive whole for even the most complex, geographically dispersed global studies,” said Deidré Marais, ClinResearch owner and clinical operations manager.
At the same time, Marais added, “immediate access to localised operational metrics lets us proactively manage the investigators and patient populations with whom we work directly, leveraging our familiarity with the study environment in even more valuable ways.”
ClinResearch offers a full range of Phase I-IV services for pharmaceutical and biotechnology clients in South Africa and the surrounding markets, including regulatory affairs, clinical monitoring, investigator site selection and management, drug supply, sourcing, distribution and storage, and translation/compilation of patient documents.
