Southwest Michigan clinical trials among those helping Michigan, patients

Southwest Michigan is very much a part of the clinical medical research scene, collaborating with national biopharmaceutical research companies that have conducted 3,500 clinical trials of new medicines in the state since 1999, reports Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA).

In Kalamazoo alone, during the 12 year study period, 317 clinical trials have been conducted or are still under way at local research institutions. Of the 317 trials, 170 targeted the nation’s six most debilitating chronic diseases -- asthma, cancer, diabetes, heart disease, mental illness and stroke.

Of the 170 clinical trials targeting chronic diseases, 33 are still recruiting patients, giving some disease sufferers still looking for treatments that are best for them a viable alternative therapeutic option to consider and discuss with their physicians.

The report says clinical trials account for 45 to 75 percent of the average $1.2 billion cost of developing one new biotechnology drug. The trials also help to boost the state’s economy and advance science and overall patient health care.

Research companies from throughout the region that have been working on clinical trials of new medicines and therapies are:

• Associated Internal Medicine Specialists, Battle Creek;
• Borgess Medical Center, Kalamazoo;
• Borgess Research Institute, Kalamazoo;
• Jasper Clinic, Kalamazoo;
• Lakeland, St. Joseph;
• Oncology Care Associates, St. Joseph; and
• West Michigan Cancer Center, Kalamazoo.

Clinical trials of new medicines are important to the state and national economy because biopharmaceutical companies "are providing a steady source of revenue to local research institutions at a time when Michigan needs as many boosts to its economy as it can get," says MichBio’s Stephen Rapundalo.

Writer: Kathy Jennings, Second Wave Media
Source: Jeff Trewhitt, Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America