A new partnership at ASU will help researchers improve medicine and give Arizonans a chance to participate in medical research.
ASU’s Center for Healthcare Innovation and Clinical Trials is the fifth organization to become a global prime site partner for Quintiles, a biopharmaceutical services company that focuses on managing clinical research.
Linda Mottle, director of the Center for Healthcare Innovation and Clinical Trials, said being a global prime site partner allows ASU to have access to more clinical research initiatives.
Because of the partnership, ASU will be able to improve the safety and effectiveness of pharmaceutical research, she said. ASU partnered with Quintiles because it is the largest global pharmaceutical service provider for new drug development in the world.
The center is part of ASU’s College of Nursing and Health Innovation, and the partnership started early this semester, Mottle said. The four other global prime sites are in Southern California, South Africa, London, Washington and Malaysia.
Mottle said the ASU unit is the only one of Quintiles’ prime sites that is community-based.
“What we are really trying to do is enhance clinical research capability, networking and collaboration by leveraging our strengths to encourage new business opportunities and [increase] the clinical research industry sector in the state of Arizona,” Mottle said.
Because of the partnership, she said, there would be many new clinical research opportunities brought into the state.
In the future, ASU and Quintiles will work to educate the Arizona public on participating in clinical research to help advance new treatments and promote the global health.
Mottle said the affiliation brings in new potential treatment options for patients, and it helps create further business opportunities.
In addition, she said it helps ASU researchers to connect more fully to the community because there are partners to help test and develop new treatment devices.
Adam Chasse, associate director at Quintiles Transnational Corporation, said the partnership is important to Quintiles for many reasons. He said a major challenge in conducting research is to partner effectively with doctors who are treating the diseases that have to be studied.
“It is important for Quintiles to impact others and work with ASU to build up more research capability in the Phoenix Metro area,” Chasse said.
The partnership would help engage the health care community and conduct research with the efficiency necessary to bring new drugs to the market faster, he said.
Robert Green, president and CEO of the Arizona BioIndustry Association, said the ability to conduct clinical trials in the Phoenix area is a huge benefit to bioscience companies.
The Arizona BioIndustry Association’s goal is to help bioscience organizations grow by educating, influencing and advancing policy makers and the public, he said.
Through this partnership, the ability to conduct clinical trials in the state would be improved. Bioscience refers to the arrangement and behavior of living organisms, Green said.
Green said he hopes other large contract research organizations will notice that they can also conduct research in Arizona successfully.
Because of the partnership, he said, other big companies would now see that they should also be focusing on Arizona.
“Since we have clinical trials here, many of our Arizona citizens will have the opportunity to participate,” Green said. “This is not only a tremendous event for bioscience, but it is also a tremendous event for the systems of Arizona.”
Reach the reporter at khillhou@asu.edu
