The partnership will allow the US CRO to gain access to the clinical research unit located within the Indiana University School of Medicine in Indianapolis and it will allow CTSI scientists to gain access to Covance’s clinical research unit located in Evansville, Indiana.
"This alliance will give biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies access to the expanded Phase I expertise and services of both partners," Covance spokeswoman Janet Lee told Outsourcing-Pharma.com. "Increasingly, research sponsors are looking for ways to improve drug development timelines. One way to do this is to develop first-in-human studies which collect data from patients as well as healthy volunteers."
The 13,606-square-foot Indianapolis facility is set to expand into a 50-patient facility in an even larger building.
Services provided by the Indiana CTSI include access to 24-hour nursing support, in-patient and out-patient facilities, on-site laboratory analyses and patient recruitment services. These patient recruitment efforts are strengthened by patient data from another CTSI partner, the Regenstrief Institute, in which more than 70 Indiana hospitals share nearly 80% of the state’s electronic medical record data.
Early Phase Layoffs
The announcement of this partnership comes as Covance laid off hundreds of early phase researchers over the last year to stem profit losses in early phase work, according to a recent report.
The trend of lagging demand for early phase clinical work is expected to continue in the near future, the report says.
The company’s Phase I work with CTSI will also build off of its previously announced five-year partnership with the Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen University Hospitals NHS Trust.