Under the deal, announced late last week, PPD will provide training and support for around 20 of DiabetesAmerica’s research staff who are involved in conducting clinical trials in both type I and II diabetes at 17 research centres across the US
In return, DiabetesAmerica has agreed to collaborate with PPD on endocrine and metabolic disease programmes for at least the next three years which, the contract research organisation (CRO), said will improve its ability to recruit diabetic patients.
Researchers at the University of Chicago recently predicted that the number of US citizens who suffer from diabetes will double to around 44m over the next 25 years, increasing the amount the country spends on treatment to $336bn (€234bn).
This is likely to stimulate the development of new treatment by drug firms keen to tap into the market and, as a result, an increase in the number of clinical trials and demand for CRO that have expertise in the disease.
Commenting on the new collaboration, PPD VP of clinical development Mike Wilkinson said that: “DiabetesAmerica’s patient database expands our ability to offer clinical trial options to a broader population of people living with this increasingly common disease.”
DiabetesAmerica’s CEO, Rosemary Mazanet, said the alliance “Will help ensure our physicians are fully trained on managing drug development programs so we can continue to bring complete diabetes care to our patients.”
Collaborations
The collaboration is not the first diabetes partnership that PPD has established. In October last year the CRO was selected as the preferred provider for the Dallas-based Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF).
While that deal focused exclusively on children with type I diabetes, its structure was similar to the DiabetesAmerica accord with PPD providing training for JDRF’s staff of clinical research associates (CRAs) and trial investigators.