Medicines for Children Research Networks now live
February 2007The new national Medicines for Children Research Network (MCRN) was officially launched at the end of last year by Wigan MP Andy Burnham, Minister for Delivery and Quality within the Department of Health. The Network will be co-ordinated from a centre at Alder Hey Hospital, and marks a new era for research into medicines for children.
At present some medicines used to treat children are tested only on adults, mainly through clinical trials. Many experts feel that their safety and efficacy should be tested in clinical trials using young patients, making this a key research growth area.
At the regional level, the Greater Manchester, Lancashire and South Cumbria Medicines for Children Research Network (GMLC) led by Professor Peter Clayton is now up and running, based at the Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital. The GMLC will help local NHS staff set up and run clinical trials at 14 hospital and primary care trusts, to test medicines for diseases affecting the young including cystic fibrosis, allergies, kidney disease and asthma.
The GMLC will provide dedicated research staff to help increase the number of local doctors able to get involved with this type of research, and expanding access patients’ access to research. It has also recently appointed five trials nurses and a secretary, with two trials co-ordinators and a pharmacist to be appointed shortly.
Further information
For further information on the trials the GMLC will be supporting and how to get involved, please contact Network Manager Sarah Rickard at CMMC on 922 2932/07920 499023 or sarah.rickard@cmmc.nhs.uk, or visit Medicines for Children Research Network websiteThe University of Manchester is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
