Fondazione Parco Biomedico San Raffaele (PSB), a biomedical science park in the Lazio region of Italy, has taken its ‘bench to bedside’ research strategy into the global arena by linking up with contract research organisation Datapharm Australia. The collaboration will give Italian and European biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies the chance to “penetrate one of the most dynamic biotech economies on the planet”, PSB says.
The new partners want to raise awareness of their respective capabilities in the other party’s market and establish a support network so that Australian and Italian/European companies can tap into those capabilities when needed. This should provide “a smooth passage for clients from both Europe and Australia to conduct clinical trials and access research opportunities in new markets”, PSB commented, adding that collaboration and strong international relations were essential if sponsors wanted access to more patients for global clinical trials while maintaining high quality standards.
According to PSB, Datapharm is the most experienced CRO in Australia. Set up in 1987, the company has been involved in more than 300 clinical studies, from Phase I through to IV, for over 50 clients in 40 therapeutic areas. Its services include clinical trial management, monitoring, data management, statistical analysis and pharmacovigilance.
PSB was founded by the Banca di Roma, the Chamber of Commerce of Rome and the Fondazione San Raffaele Monte Tabor to fill the need for a biomedical research centre in the Lazio region. The park opened in 2002 and is home to three companies (Lay Line Genomics, Biolab and Farminerva) and nine research groups working in the fields of stem cells, cell therapy and tissue engineering, skeletal regeneration, molecular cardiology, immunology, and biomedical quality control, as well as oncology, leukaemia, muscular dystrophy, neurological disorders and diabetes.
The Fondazione offers facilities for the development of biomedical concepts through to the preclinical stage, and it recently created a Lazio-based preclinical to clinical platform in the form of the Centro di Ricerca per la Sperimentazione Clinica (CRISC). PSB is also a partner in Transvac, a Marie Curie Industry-Academia Partnership backed by the European Commission and involving the European Clinical Research Infrastructure Network. The Transvac programme aims to develop a portfolio of biomedical research projects arising from European alliances and actively managed by the participating centres.
