Clinical Trials and Preclinical Infrastructure Asset Map - Life Sciences

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BRITISH COLUMBIA
TABLE 14. Independent Clinical Trials Organizations (cont’d)
Company/ URL
Pacific Nuclear Medicine Inc. (no URL) *
PerCuro Clinical Research Ltd. (no URL) *
PRA International (www.prainternational.com)
ProHealth Clinical Research (www.
prohealthcr.ca) *
Syreon Corp. (www.syreon.com) *
SLC Laboratories (www.slclabs.com) *
Victoria Heart Institute Foundation
(www.vhif.org) *
*Home-grown companies.
Services
Located at Lions Gate Hospital; specializes in undertaking clinical trials for new biopharmaceuticals
which are labeled with radioactive tracers for both radiodiagnosis
and radiotherapy.
Conducts Phases II-IV out patient clinical trials in the areas of rheumatology, dermatology,
gastroenterology, and infectious diseases (in particular Hepatitis C).
Large multi-national multi-capability CRO providing International services through
all phases of clinical development with facilities in Victoria B.C.
Specializes in Phases I – IV clinical trials in men’s health, postmenopausal women’s
health, metabolic bone diseases (osteoporosis) and endocrine disease (including
diabetes).
Clinical trial research corporation providing expertise in molecular medicine,
biostatistics, clinical therapeutics, economics, health outcomes measurement, and
economics. Conducts national and international Phase I to IV clinical and pharmacovigilance
studies.
Offers customized analytical and bioanalytical services to the pharmaceutical, natural
health product, and functional food industries. It also provides experience in bioanalytical
support for clinical studies in Japan in association with Japanese affiliate Epoch
Medical International Inc.
Non-profit, charitable organization dedicated to conducting and supporting cardiovascular
research on Vancouver Island.
Successes
B.C.’s clinical trials successes are too numerous to mention. However, an indication of the world-class
expertise available in the Province can be seen above in the number of trials, investigators, CTUs/
centres/ study sites, and sponsors, as well as the central location of many national and international
networks and other facilities. B.C. investigators are the founders or co-founders of the Canadian Pharmacogenomics
Network for Drug Safety, the CIHR Canadian HIV Trials Network, the Pacific Rim Workgroup
Against Epilepsy, PrioNet Canada, the SARS Accelerated Vaccine Initiative (SAVI), the Canadian Urologic
Oncology Group, and various NCIC Clinical Trials Groups. They have also been first author on numerous
peer-reviewed papers, including the most prestigious journals such as the New England Journal of
Medicine 32 ,. Furthermore, they hold large peer-reviewed grants from such international organizations
as the U.S. National Cancer Institute and NIH, as well as Canadian funders including the National Cancer
Institute of Canada (NCIC) (now the Canadian Cancer Society Research Institute), CIHR, and the National
Science and Engineering Research Council (NSERC).
The Province also has its commercial successes. As indicated in Table 14, at least 21 home-grown companies
offering clinical trials services operate in B.C. A 22nd company, PRA International, has facilities in
B.C. because it purchased a B.C. company, CroMedica.
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A few examples: (1) Abu-Laban RB, Christenson JM, Innes GD, et al. Tissue plasminogen activator in cardiac arrest with pulseless electrical activity.
N Engl J Med. 2002 May 16;346(20):1522-8. (2) Hogg JC, Chu F, Utokaparch S, et al. The nature of small-airway obstruction in chronic obstructive
pulmonary disease. N Engl J Med. 2004 Jun 24;350(26):2645-53. (3) Russell JA, Walley KR, Singer J, et al; VASST Investigators. Vasopressin versus norepinephrine
infusion in patients with septic shock. N Engl J Med. 2008 Feb 28;358(9):877-87. (4) Gleave ME, Mostafa E, Fradet Y, et al. Canadian Urologic
Oncology Group. Interferon gamma-1b compared with placebo in metastatic renal-cell carcinoma. N Engl J Med. 1998;338:1305-1306.