Health Minister has welcomed investment of
£12.6m to establish a Commercial Research Delivery Centre (CRDC)
in Northern Ireland.
The Centres are being funded across the UK through the Voluntary
scheme for branded medicines Pricing, Access and Growth (VPAG)
Investment Programme, and will expand capacity to deliver
commercial clinical research across the four nations.
Funding of £12.6 million is being provided over the next five
years to deliver on the objectives of the VPAG Programme in
Northern Ireland by establishing a Commercial Research Delivery
Centre (CDRC), which will act as a regional hub to co-ordinate
research activity.
The initiative will allow Northern Ireland to create a dedicated
space and resource for efficient end-to-end delivery of
commercial trials in Northern Ireland for the first time.
Health Minister said: “This Programme
is a significant boost for the research ecosystem in Northern
Ireland. The funding of £12.6m to establish a Commercial
Research Delivery Centre will support the Northern Ireland health
research workforce to deliver commercial clinical trials to a
broader range of people, not only in Trusts and research
facilities, but also in primary care and in the community.
This will create more opportunities to participate in research
for the whole NI population, and in particular, for people less
frequently represented in research.”
Also welcoming the announcement, Prof. Ian Young, Chief
Scientific Advisor for the Northern Ireland Department of Health
said: “The CRDC will ensure that we enhance our competitiveness
and uptake of trials, while maintaining our existing high
standards of recruitment, expanding our delivery and creating
opportunities for collaboration with industry to test innovative
new treatments.
"By extending clinical trials access into hospitals and primary
care settings, the CRDC will help ensure that more people can
participate in cutting-edge research, bringing benefits to
communities, accelerating access to new treatments and helping to
place Northern Ireland on the global health research stage.”
