Public Funding for Datatrial Limited

"Advance Therapies are a new generation of treatments which use patients' cells as 'drug' to treat a variety of diseases. Although encouraging results have been reported, this technology is complex, expensive and currently only available to small numbers of patients. We have formed the Innovate Manchester Advanced Therapy Centre Hub (iMATCH); this is a group of collaborators who share a vision of working more efficiently together so we can offer Advanced Therapies to more children and adult patients with cancer and non-cancer diseases. iMATCH unites experts from The Christie NHS Foundation Trust and Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust, The University of Manchester and 9 businesses with specific expertise in different aspects of delivering Advanced Therapies. Our 9 commercial partners are; Cellular Therapeutics, Aptusclinical, Chaucer, Datatrial, Formedix, Asymptote, AstraZeneca, Agenus and The Christie Pathology Partnership. iMATCH will resolve the challenges and expand facilities to allow us to design and run larger clinical trials so that we can to treat greater numbers of patients within the NHS, safely and efficiently. We are going to focus on; * Coordinating patient cell collection * Processing and storage of those cells * Developing efficient systems to track samples from the patient, through manufacture and back to the patient * Ensure we have all the information we need, from each patient we treat, to know whether a clinical trial has been a success; this will include long term follow-up of patients These clinical trials are complex and challenging to run; it is important that we provide specific education for our doctors, nurses and the teams that support them. We want to define the education packages needed then offer this training to all Manchester-based partners, then any national and international teams. This will increase the use of Advanced Therapies world-wide. Manchester is an excellent choice for this investment by Innovate UK; we have a large population of 3.2 million people, two substantial hospital sites with existing experience offering these treatments to a variety of patients, a devolved Health Care System and an ability to draw together companies who can help us to overcome the complex challenges. Together we will improve patient outcomes."

"The Northern Alliance Advanced Therapies Treatment Centre (NAATTC) is a group of NHS hospitals and services. NAATTC has a wide geographical reach across Scotland and the North of England and is responsible for the health care of 15 million NHS patients. Advanced therapies are becoming increasingly available with a growing number of companies developing them both in the UK and worldwide. They are based on the administration of gene- and cell-based products in specialities such as haematology, autoimmunity, hepatology, cardiology and ophthalmology. They are thought to be more effective than existing treatments and provide treatments for diseases where currently no effective therapy exists. However most are still in clinical trials. Advanced therapies present significant challenges to healthcare providers compared with existing treatments. Addressing these challenges in the NHS will require development and dissemination of new skills for nurses, doctors, hospital pharmacists, NHS managers, and commissioners such as NHS England and the clinical commissioning groups (CCGs). It will also require changes in the way treatment is delivered. The changes required in the NHS can only be properly implemented through partnership with the companies that are developing and providing advanced therapies to the NHS. Manufacturers will need assistance with clinical trials to ensure optimal trial design, effective recruitment into clinical trials, and long term follow up of outcomes. The manufacturing and distributing processes are complex and it is critical that these systems are integrated effectively with those within the NHS. The NAATTC already has considerable experience of delivering advanced therapies and clinical trials and will use this experience to work with manufacturers (and their supply chains) to significantly increase their capacity to deliver advanced therapies effectively, safely, and seamlessly to patients within the NHS. It will identify gaps in our existing provision and develop solutions to narrow and eliminate the gaps. It will share the best practice that it develops to other ATTCs and to other NHS organisations. The outcomes will be to deliver these promising therapies to NHS patients and to make the NHS a global leader in their delivery, creating health and wealth for the UK."