King’s Health Partners opens Experimental Medicine Hub in the heart of London

23 March 2011

These state of the art facilities will encourage more patients and healthy volunteers to participate in clinical studies, while providing the space for health professionals and scientific colleagues to work together and ensure that medical breakthroughs benefit patients at the earliest possible opportunity.

The Experimental Medicine Hub spans five floors of the Guy's Hospital tower and includes:

• A Clinical Research Facility to provide scientists and clinicians with dedicated space for studies involving healthy volunteers and patients.
• A facility for phase-one drug research trials, including first-in-man studies, run by Quintiles - the world's only fully integrated biopharmaceutical services company.
• Our National Institute for Health Research comprehensive Biomedical Research Centre's Faculty of Translational Medicine, and a Joint Clinical Trials Office with dedicated staff to advise on all aspects of commercial and non-commercial trials.
• A cutting-edge pharmacy manufacturing unit producing medication on site for clinical trials, NHS patients and commercial sale.
• A purpose-built stem cell laboratory where researchers contribute to increasing knowledge about diseases such as cystic fibrosis and Huntington's disease and a Centre for Preimplantation Genetic Diagnostics (PGD). This is the largest PGD programme of its kind in the UK, providing treatment for approximately 200 couples each year. The unit uses state-of-the-art technology to diagnose and exclude from transfer those embryos at risk of over 40 genetic disorders. Since opening in 1997, nearly 300 children have been born free of serious genetic disorders as a result of the treatment.

At the opening on Wednesday, Lord Howe, Health Minister said:

"I am delighted to open these new facilities. Experimental medicine is vital in developing new treatments and technologies that can make a real difference to patients' lives.

"We are modernising the NHS so we can make it one of the leading healthcare systems in the world and facilities like these will help us detect diseases more quickly and make medical breakthroughs that will improve healthcare for everyone."

Professor Robert Lechler, Executive Director of King's Health Partners explains:

"This suite of world-class facilities aims to encourage patients to participate in clinical studies, but it will also make it easier for a wide range of health professionals and scientific colleagues to work together from across our partnership.

"On average it takes 17 years for research discoveries and medical breakthroughs to become routine clinical practice. By bringing researchers, clinicians and health professionals together in this way will radically reduce this timeframe. This will lead to better care and treatment for patients internationally, nationally but also locally as we aim to find more effective ways to tackle major health problems ranging from obesity to heart disease.

"As we drive forward our ambitious vision to become the UK's top Academic Health Sciences Centre, facilities such as this will be vital in allowing us to embed research and clinical and academic excellence at the heart of our organisations."

Dr Dennis Gillings, C.B.E., Chairman and Chief Executive of Quintiles, said:

"The biopharma world is changing rapidly, resulting in a new health landscape. It requires a new, highly collaborative approach that follows the "think global, act local" concept to ensure that scientific advances are translated into patient benefits. Our involvement in the Experimental Medicine Hub has increased our capacity to conduct proof of concept programmes. These facilities bring Quintiles physically and professionally closer to academic and medical colleagues."

Sir William Wells, Chair of Guy's and St Thomas' Charity said:

"I am delighted that the Charity has been able to use its funds to support patient-focused research of this kind as we know that the close working relationship that it will foster between researchers and clinicians means that patients will benefit more rapidly from what is learnt as the translation of research from the lab bench to the patient bedside is accelerated"

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