Concert brings networks and industry together
The support of a National Institute for Health Research Clinical Research Network (CRN) can help industry set up a research study more efficiently and deliver their study more effectively. But a high profile study can also help strengthen the position of a network within its research community. This mutually beneficial dynamic is at the heart of the Concert study, in which the Dementias and Neurodegenerative Diseases (DeNDRoN) CRN and the US pharmaceutical Medivation have benefitted from a successful collaboration.
The Concert study is evaluating the effectiveness and safety of an Alzheimer’s drug called dimebon and is open to patients with mild to moderate Alzheimers disease who are already being treated with a drug called donepezil. It is a global study, with 100 sites world‐wide including 12 in England. So, why did Concert decide to work with DeNDRoN? Their Managing Director and Vice President Andria Langenberg explains that it is a result of past experience and the scale and quality of the support they receive,
“We worked with DeNDRoN in 2008 on the Connection study. Since the first experience was a positive one, we decided to work with the network again. “The main benefit we receive from working with DeNDRoN is the co‐ordinated network of sites, trained staff and the resources that they give us access to. This makes it easier for us to source sites and clinicians who want to take part in a study and it also puts us in a stronger position to recruit patients.
“In this case DeNDRoN helped us co‐ordinate study sites, set up budget costing templates and provided useful advice in focusing our advertising. They also helped us address any issues that arose: at one stage we had to change one of the investigators and they worked with us to source a replacement. And that kind of support makes a real difference when you’re trying to set‐up, recruit to and run a clinical research study. “
One of the DeNDRoN (LRNs) taking part in the study is East Anglia. For Network Manager Ann Luck it
is the work her team has done to expand the network that has underpinned Concert recruitment,
“Recruitment for Concert has benefitted from the work we’ve been doing to introduce dementias
and neurodegenerative based clinical research to the wider East Anglia community. Traditionally
clinical research has been focused around Cambridge, but we have opened up three new sites in
Norfolk: Norwich, King’s Lynn and Great Yarmouth. We negotiated the contracts, equipped the
research rooms and are now staffing them.
“This has enabled us to raise our profile within the mental health sector and ensured we can broaden our base of research friendly, mental health clinicians. We were originally asked to recruit eight patients from our Norwich site, but this was then increased to sixteen from Norwich and King’s Lynn. We have recruited 15 so far and hope to meet our target by the end of October 2010. Our database is expanding all of the time and I think it has played a significant role in engaging pharma with the network and has put us in a strong position to work with them again in the future.”
For Juniper West, East Anglia DeNDRoN research nurse, the Concert Study has given the network an opportunity to prove their worth with a wider section of the mental health community, “Studies such as Medivation are particularly helpful to us because of their high profile. The Medivation study has good PR in the research community. This is due to the length of the study and the relatively broad acceptance criteria, which means the study is giving a significant number of people the opportunity to take part and potentially benefit from a new treatment. Because of this the study has attracted attention from clinicians who have had no network experience, but would like to give their patients the opportunity to take part. And because they are getting involved they develop an understanding of who we are and an appreciation of what we do.”
