US-based contract research organisation (CRO) PRA International continues to raise its profile in Central and Eastern Europe, opening a new facility for Phase I clinical trials in the Czech Republic.
The opening closely follows the announcement that PRA had consolidated its Early Development Services and Product Registration teams in Warsaw, Poland into a new, larger office to accommodate the continuing growth of these operations.
The 10-bed, accredited Phase I unit in the Czech Republic is located in a new state-of-the-art medical building in Prague, PRA said.
Like other Early Development Services facilities run by the company in Central and Eastern Europe, the Prague site will use a ‘unit-on-demand’ business model that brings Phase I trial centres to patients. Under this model, PRA establishes a Phase I environment in central medical facilities that specialise in treating target patient populations.
Practising physicians at these facilities can recruit high volumes of patients using extensive networks of referring specialists and general practitioners, the company noted. In addition to its five Central and Eastern Europe locations, PRA runs traditional-style clinical research units in the Netherlands and the US.
