NorskClinical trials involve testing new drugs and medical equipment on human subjects. Clinical trials can be conducted on both healthy volunteers and patients.
“Clinical trials are the key to medical development. Patients who participate in clinical trials get access to experimental treatment six or seven years before the treatment becomes available on the market,” says Siri Kolle. Kolle is Vice President Clinical in Inven2 and responsible for Inven2’s clinical trials.
Clinical trials give health personnel important experience of new drugs and treatment methods, research experience and access to international networks.
“It is also important to the Norwegian health industry to be able to test their treatments locally, as Norwegian innovations will then benefit patients in Norway at an early stage,” says Kolle.
Clear-cut system
Inven2 represents the hospitals involved in individual trials and handles the contracts between the industry and the hospital in question. Inven2 is also responsible for following up the financial aspects of the agreements.
“This is a good and clear-cut system because it ensures an arm’s length distance between the industry and the hospital, which in turn ensures transparent collaboration,” says Kolle.
Inven2 carries out this work on behalf of all hospitals in the South-Eastern Norway health region, as well as the University Hospital of Northern Norway, which simplifies the start-up of clinical trials in Norway. Inven2 is making continuous efforts to rationalise the process of putting agreements in place in order to ensure that trials can start as soon as possible.
“The fact that we can start trials in Norway so quickly is an important competitive advantage for us,” says Kolle.
“There is strong global competition to attract clinical trials.”
Record number of new trials registered
In 2018, Inven2 negotiated a record number of new contracts on behalf of the industry to initiate contract research and collaboration in the South-Eastern Norway and Northern Norwegian health regions.
“We registered 163 new contracts in total in 2018, which is the highest number in the history of Inven2. In light of the fact that we’ve seen a general decrease in the number of trials conducted in Norway over the past years, this is very positive and shows that we represent hospitals that remain very attractive to industry,” says Kolle.
Inven2 is currently managing 433 ongoing trials, and Oslo University Hospital has 274 of them, with Akershus University Hospital (Ahus) in second place with 59 trials.
“The number of new cancer trials in particular has increased significantly at Oslo University Hospital in 2018, and never before have so many new cancer trials been started. We see that some environments have established themselves as particularly good at trials in certain forms of cancer, and because they provide such good results, they attract more and more trials,” says Kolle. “This means that more Norwegian cancer patients are able to receive experimental treatment at the hospital.”
She also says that she sees a completely new political will to facilitate clinical trials in Norway.
Read more:
Mobilising for more clinical trials: https://www.inven2.com/no/news/201811/mobiliserer-flere-kliniske-studier
Inven2 Clinical Trials: http://www.inven2.com/no/clinical-trials
CONTACT
Siri Kolle, M.Sc
Vice President Clinical
siri.kolle@inven2.com
Mob:(+47) 41 51 37 46
