Panthera Biopartners, a site management organization (SMO), announced the opening of its first clinical trials site, located in Lancashire, UK, stating that it is the first out of a number of sites planned to be opened in Glasgow and Rochdale, UK, as well as overseas, by the first quarter of 2020.
According to Panthera, the site is already involved in implementing trials on behalf of several contract research organizations and pharmaceutical companies to examine drug candidates with indications including cardiac diseases, allergies, migraine, osteoarthritis, osteoporosis, and diabetes.
Moreover, the company announced that it plans to expand its clinical activity in nonalcoholic steatohepatitis, oncology, and neurology, in 2020.
Going digital to increase accessibility
Following the industry’s shift to digital services aiming to improve patient experience and retention rates during the clinical trials, Panthera announced that it is looking to incorporate new technologies into its clinical trial site’s operations.
John Lyon, the founder and CFO of Panthera, told us that the company looks at its entry in the site market as a “tremendous opportunity to augment the experience of the team with digital technologies from the start.”
More specifically, the company aims to increase its ‘digital footprint’ to make the processes accessible to more patients, while at the same time “implementing practical online tools, reducing the on-site burden required to run a trial.”
“This enables virtualization of visits, and potentially entire trials, as well as electronic source data to enable remote monitoring and reduce the number of queries being managed,” Lyon told us.
The company’s digital services are expected to enable closer contact with patients throughout the trials, leading to greater levels of compliance and retention, he concluded.
