The National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) has launched five national patient recruitment centres (NPRCs) in a move designed to accelerate the delivery of late-stage clinical research within the NHS.

The five NPRCs, which will be located at NHS hospital sites across England, are funded through a £7 million investment via the government’s Life Sciences Industrial Strategy and Sector Deal 2 – both of which are aimed at strengthening the UK’s clinical research environment.

The aim of the NPRCs is to fast-track and ease the process for life sciences companies to deliver late-phase clinical research at scale within the NHS, which, it is hoped, will increase the number of commercial studies carried out in the UK as well as boost access to innovative new treatments and diagnostics.

Each will be managed by and funded through the NIHR and run locally by the individual NHS trusts. The Centres are to be equipped with purpose-designed facilities, clinical expertise and ready access to NHS support services, including pharmacy, radiology and pathology.

The NPRCs are set to specialise in recruiting non-hospitalised patients with common chronic health conditions – like asthma, type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease – that are often managed by primary and community health services. In addition, the centres will have a key role in delivering and aiding people to take part in commercial COVID-19 vaccine studies.

“The new National Patient Recruitment Centres will significantly increase our capacity and capability to support the delivery of late-phase commercial research through the NHS,” said William van’t Hoff, chief executive of the NIHR Clinical Research Network. “By offering a streamlined, consistent and collaborative approach to study set-up and delivery, the centres will also make it quicker and easier for the life science industry to bring late phase studies to the UK and run these at pace and scale across our NHS,” he added.

The University of Exeter and Medicines Discovery Catapult (MDC) have partnered to accelerate medicines R&D, in order to maximise the impact and value of basic medical research.

The partnership will combine the University’s leading research with MDC’s industry skills, discovery platforms, data technologies and national networks, with the aim of ensuring that promising innovations are identified and packaged so that industry and funders can adopt them.

The broad activities of focus for the partnership include identifying research that can be supported in the earliest stages; developing innovations into an independently validated proposition to allow investors/pharma partners to join projects; embedding industry standard drug discovery and knowledge at the ‘point of ideation’, and identifying and developing new mechanisms to sustain the development of medicines.

“This exciting partnership offers much for both parties,” said Professor Neil Gow, deputy vice-chancellor, research and impact, at Exeter University. “It will enable our researchers to take their novel ideas beyond the stage where academic inspiration transitions into translational applications. For Medicines Discovery Catapult, we hope this will deepen the well of creative ideas that their expertise can support”.

“This shared-skills, co-operative approach tackles a deep structural issue head-on and ensures the best ideas see the light of day at pace and scale for the benefit of patients and the UK economy,” added Professor Chris Molloy, chief executive officer of MDC.