News archive 2009

Biopharmaceutical agreement to drive innovation

26 Oct 2009, PR 223/09

King’s and Guy’s & St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust have signed an agreement with Quintiles, a biopharmaceutical services company offering clinical, commercial, consulting and capital solutions worldwide. The partnership will foster development between the organizations in driving innovation, improving patient care and increasing efficiency in early stage clinical research.


Professor Robert Lechler, Vice-Principal (Health), King’s and Director of King’s Health Partners, said: ‘King’s College London’s important partnership with Quintiles and Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, one of our Academic Health Sciences Centre (AHSC) partners, is exactly the sort of collaboration we expect to see at the heart of King’s Health Partners. Through this collaboration and the significant investments we have already made to develop first class clinical research facilities, we will create a powerful ‘experimental medicine’ hub across four floors of the Guy’s Hospital Tower, allowing us to harness the expertise of our world class scientists and clinicians to drive new discoveries in medicine and clinical treatment.’

As part of the agreement, Quintiles has commissioned a state of the art research facility with 30 beds, for both patients and healthy volunteers involved in research, on the 14th floor of Guy’s Hospital in central London. The facility, to be completed in early 2010, will now be known as the Quintiles Drug Research Unit at Guy’s Hospital. The facility significantly increases Quintiles’ capacity to conduct proof-of-concept programmes that help biopharmaceutical companies develop better medicines faster.

Eddie Caffrey, Senior Vice President, Global Phase I, Quintiles commented: ‘The biopharmaceutical industry must bring new drugs to market faster and with greater predictability to address declining research and development productivity. The smartest move is to invest in intelligent, early-stage development because, when done well, it has significant impact on speed and cost of the overall development process.’

A further strength of the collaboration is that it will bring Quintiles physically and professionally closer to academic and medical colleagues in the Academic Health Sciences Centre (AHSC), King’s Health Partners, and its National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) comprehensive Biomedical Research Centre (BRC). 

Quintiles Unit

The Quintiles Drug Research Unit at Guy’s Hospital will be perfectly positioned next to leading-edge Clinical Research Facilities and a Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) Pharmacy currently being developed by Guy’s and St Thomas’ and King’s to drive forward transaltional research and be adjacent to the home of the BRC’s new Faculty of Translational Medicine.

Ron Kerr, Chief Executive of Guy’s and St Thomas’ said: ‘We want to deliver the best possible care to our patients, and we know that aligning clinical service excellence with translational research has been shown to be one of the most effective ways to do this.  We’re excited by the potential of this collaboration as it will lead to a smoother and faster clinical trials process, ensuring our patients and local people are amongst the first to benefit from any new discoveries.’

The agreement between Quintiles, Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust and King’s College London was brokered by King’s Business, the innovation support company for King's College London.

This expansion builds on Quintiles’ existing, industry leading, network of Phase I facilities across Europe, Asia and the US.  Its experts and pioneers utilise integrated data platforms comprising technically advanced electronic data capture and reporting to facilitate early go/no-go decision making.  This new facility in Guy’s Hospital Tower, is an expansion of Quintiles existing facilities in Newcomen Street.



Notes to editors

King's College London
King's College London is one of the top 25 universities in the world (Times Higher Education 2009) and the fourth oldest in England. A research-led university based in the heart of London, King's has more than 21,000 students from nearly 140 countries, and more than 5,700 employees. King's is in the second phase of a £1 billion redevelopment programme which is transforming its estate.

King's has an outstanding reputation for providing world-class teaching and cutting-edge research. In the 2008 Research Assessment Exercise for British universities, 23 departments were ranked in the top quartile of British universities; over half of our academic staff work in departments that are in the top 10 per cent in the UK in their field and can thus be classed as world leading. The College is in the top seven UK universities for research earnings and has an overall annual income of nearly £450 million.

King's has a particularly distinguished reputation in the humanities, law, the sciences (including a wide range of health areas such as psychiatry, medicine and dentistry) and social sciences including international affairs. It has played a major role in many of the advances that have shaped modern life, such as the discovery of the structure of DNA and research that led to the development of radio, television, mobile phones and radar. It is the largest centre for the education of healthcare professionals in Europe; no university has more Medical Research Council Centres.

King's College London and Guy's and St Thomas', King's College Hospital and South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trusts are part of King's Health Partners. King's Health Partners Academic Health Sciences Centre (AHSC) is a pioneering global collaboration between one of the world's leading research-led universities and three of London's most successful NHS Foundation Trusts, including leading teaching hospitals and comprehensive mental health services. For more information, visit: www.kingshealthpartners.org.

Quintiles
Quintiles is the only fully integrated biopharmaceutical services company offering clinical, commercial, consulting and capital solutions worldwide. The Quintiles network of 23,000 engaged professionals in more than 50 countries around the globe works with an unwavering commitment to patients, safety and ethics. Quintiles helps biopharmaceutical companies navigate risk and seize opportunities in an environment where change is constant. For more information, please visit www.quintiles.com.

Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust
Guy's and St Thomas' provides around 850,000 patient contacts in acute and specialist hospital services every year. As one of the biggest NHS Trusts in the UK, it employs around 10,000 staff. The Trust works in partnership with the Schools of Medicine, Dentistry, Nursing and Biomedical Sciences of King's College London and other Higher Education Institutes to deliver high quality education and research. Website: www.guysandstthomas.nhs.uk



Further information
Kate Moore, Public Relations Officer (Health Schools)
Public Relations Department
Email: kate.moore@kcl.ac.uk
Tel: 020 7848 4334



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