The new facility joins the contract research organization’s (CRO) four other locations in the Salt Lake area, and increases its space by more than 20,000 square feet, to 65,000.
The expansion will give PRA the ability to accommodate 120 clinical research participants, which is a capacity increase of 20%.
"The new space will allow our full service of early stage, Phase I-III clinical research services in specialized patient populations for both inpatient and outpatient settings to fully integrate into one cohesive location," said Mark Slama, executive director, Clinical Research Services at PRA Health Sciences.
“The new PRA facility will have three clinical floors dedicated to participant study specific needs,” he told us. “In addition, the building houses training facilities, surgical suite, dedicated pupilometer area, telemetry monitoring system, and state of the art security.”
The facility – located across the street from a full-service trauma hospital – also enhances its capabilities in conducting studies involving new drug candidates for psychiatric and neurological disorders, in addition to Human Abuse Potential (HAP) studies.
The company’s research activities in Salt Lake City usually range from studies in addiction, pain, psychiatry, and neurology, to pediatric and infectious disease services, according to the Raleigh, NC-based CRO.
Additionally, Eddie Caffrey, senior vice president, Early Development Services, said the investment will enable the company to expand its sleep disorder and pain-related studies.
“The new clinic will include an on-site surgical suite equipped for cerebrospinal fluid sampling and post-surgical pain and device implantation allowing us to deliver high quality scientific results,” he explained in a press release.
It will also feature a GCP-compliant pharmacy and a lab with larger centralized processing capabilities.