NEW CLINICAL TRIALS PARTNERSHIP AGREED

Four organisations have signed a collaboration agreement to create a new clinical trials platform that will accelerate treatments for stem cell transplant recipients.

IMPACT will be funded by Anthony Nolan, Leuka, and NHS Blood and Transplant, and delivered in partnership with the University of Birmingham and the British Society of Blood and Marrow Transplantation.

IMPACT will allow the organisations to work with transplant centres on the development, approval and delivery of a portfolio of clinical trials over a four-year pilot period.

The initiative aims to increase the number of transplant patients participating in clinical trials and ensure more patients benefit from pioneering treatment. Currently, more than half of adult patients die within five years of their transplant, and in 2014 it was estimated that only one in 20 transplant patients were taking part in a trial, compared to one in five cancer patients.

IMPACT will provide the infrastructure for transplant centres to rapidly recruit patients onto clinical trials and will facilitate data-sharing, aiming to accelerate the rate at which cutting-edge treatments reach patients.

The University of Birmingham will provide a ‘hub’ to support the administration and regulation of the clinical trials and oversee analysis of the trial data. The hub will be connected to a network of 22 transplant centres, including ten which will receive funding for a dedicated research nurse to recruit and support patients participating in a trial. This ‘hub and spoke’ model of accelerating clinical trials has already been successfully applied across the US and the UK.