ICON Announces Details of New Translational Medicine Unit in Manchester

Dublin, Ireland

ICON plc, a global provider of outsourced development services to the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device industries, announced details of its new translational medicine unit in Manchester, UK. The unit is the first deliverable from a collaborative agreement between ICON and the Central Manchester University Hospitals Foundation (CMFT) to develop purpose-built translational medicine facilities on the newly-developed Manchester Royal Infirmary (MRI) campus.
 
Scheduled to open in April 2010, the new hospital-based unit will comprise of 34 beds, an on-site GMP pharmacy, a sample handling laboratory, multiple meeting and admissions rooms and has contiguous access to the Accident and Emergency department at the MRI. The unit will also offer Pharmacodynamic study testing suites that are fully environmentally controlled, which will be used in the development and validation of Pharmacodynamic models that assist in identifying efficacy signals in compounds.
 
“We are delighted to be collaborating with a partner who shares our vision for early-stage clinical development and are proud to be developing our...translational medicine facility at the CMFT campus,” commented Dr. Thomas Frey, President, ICON Development Solutions.
 
CMFT is a member of the Manchester Academic Health Science Centre (MAHSC) which is one of only five such sites in the UK designated by the Department of Health. as a centre in applying health research and education into healthcare. Through the collaboration, ICON will share expertise with academic and medical communities of this network and has access to the facilities of the other NHS members and the University of Manchester.