Quintiles announced today that it will contribute a total of $2.6 million over four years to support 

, an adaptive clinical trial designed to develop breast cancer therapies twice as quickly and at one-fifth the cost of current methods. Current development costs typically exceed $1 billion and take 12 to 15 years to bring a single drug to market.

The I-SPY 2 clinical trial involves 800 patients with advanced breast cancer at time of primary diagnosis. It employs adaptive trial design and genetic and biological markers from individual patients’ tumors to screen multiple investigational therapies simultaneously. The evaluation of multiple drugs concurrently allows investigators to quickly measure effectiveness. 

The design of the I-SPY 2 trial represents a major advance in breast cancer research with promising implications for other cancers and other diseases. Quintiles will make its grant in support of I-SPY 2 through 

, a 501(c)(3) non-profit foundation and a co-project manager of the trial.

“Quintiles’ $2.6 million grant and our joining the I-SPY 2 management consortium reflect the company’s unwavering commitment to patients,” said Dennis Gillings, CBE, Quintiles Chairman and Chief Executive Officer.  “Multi-party collaboration, adaptive trial design, biomarker use, and point-of-care data access are major steps in the right direction.  Quintiles is proud to be part of this revolutionary effort.”

Foundation for the National Institutes of Health

 is the sponsor of I-SPY 2 while the U.S. 

 and 20 leading academic cancer centers are collaborators in the effort. Quintiles joins 

, QuantumLeap Healthcare Collaborative, several biopharmaceutical companies, and individual donors as supporters.
