NEW YORK—Cancer Research UK has selected the Medidata Clinical Cloud to support its drug discovery research at its Centre for Drug Development (CDD). The CDD will leverage Medidata Solutions Inc.'s cloud-based technology for electronic data capture and management (Medidata Rave) to help it conduct faster, safer clinical trials.
Medidata's Rave system will enable the CDD to make clinical data easily accessible to researchers in real time, streamline the process of setting up and conducting clinical trials and improve data quality by allowing clinicians to monitor patient safety and make more informed decisions across the CDD's trials.
“Medidata’s cloud-based platform provides us with the flexibility and scalability we need to accelerate progress across all our trials. Having immediate access to high-quality data will ultimately help us shorten trial delivery times, reduce costs and maximize the output of studies so that we can accelerate progress and bring new treatments to cancer patients sooner,” Dr. Nigel Blackburn, director of the CDD, said in a press release. “Transitioning to Medidata’s software-as-a-service platform for clinical trial management and execution—and partnering with a technology company that really understands our mission and R&D needs—will further increase collaboration between our research partners, especially those in the academic space.”
“Cancer Research UK is recognized internationally for its vital leadership in helping to increase cancer survival rates, and Medidata is thrilled to be part of its journey,” added Glen de Vries, president of Medidata. “We share Cancer Research UK’s quest for improved patient outcomes and are committed to providing technology that helps fuel innovation to uncover new approaches to cancer diagnosis, treatment and prevention.”
In other news, Cancer Research UK has also announced a partnership with the Engineering and Physical Research Council (EPSRC), the United Kingdom's main funding agency for training and research in engineering and physical sciences, to co-fund multidisciplinary research projects. This builds on the interest generated by Cancer Research UK's Multidisciplinary Project Award Scheme, which was launched in August of last year. This new partnership increases the funding for collaborative research to up to £37.5 million (approximately $55.7 million) over five years.
“We’re delighted to build on our existing relationship with the EPSRC,” Dr. Iain Foulkes, Cancer Research UK’s executive director of strategy and research funding, commented in a statement. “We’ve made great progress, with cancer survival rates doubling over the last 40 years, but solving the challenges of cancer prevention, diagnosis and treatment will require multidisciplinary collaboration both within the biomedical arena and with other disciplines. Invigorating new ideas and the development of novel techniques through innovative collaborations with engineers and physical scientists will really help drive cancer research forwards so that we can benefit more patients sooner.”
