Guy’s and St Thomas’ has been awarded £11.8m to continue providing state-of-the-art facilities staff need to conduct ground-breaking experimental medicine studies.
The funding from the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) was awarded following a competitive bidding process.
Representing an increase on its 2017 award, it will support the trust’s clinical research facility (CRF) for five years from September and allows it to expand the amount of ground-breaking research undertaken.
The facility is based in one of the largest NHS trusts in the country and serves a diverse inner London population at four hospital sites, St Thomas’ Hospital and Evelina London in Lambeth, Guy’s Hospital in Southwark, and Royal Brompton Hospital in Chelsea.
The new award supports experimental medicine infrastructure across all these sites.
This new NIHR award recognises the significant progress that we have already made in supporting the development and delivery of novel therapies
The trials undertaken at the centres directly benefit patients, both immediately by providing access to new treatment opportunities, and in the longer term through developing new standards of care to be delivered in the NHS.
The centre recruits more than one in 10 of all patients entering CRF trials nationally and its research addresses a wide range of healthcare needs, from problems in the youngest children to diseases most common in the elderly.
And it specialises in trials testing new therapies and diagnostics for the first time in humans.
The NIHR committee said the award was being made in recognition of the strong strategic plan ‘including demonstration of good governance and experienced leadership’, a ‘clear demonstration of patient and public involvement and commitment to equality, diversity and inclusion’ while commenting on the quality and breadth of the early translational and experimental medicine research studies.
The centre has recently expanded to five research-dedicated spaces, now offering more trials to children and to adults with chest diseases.
The units work together in an established hub-and-spoke model with common governance and management and are based close to the clinical services caring for these patients.
Professor Ian Abbs, chief executive of Guy’s and St Thomas’, said: “We continue with our ambition to be a world-leading centre for healthcare innovations including advanced cell and gene therapies.
“The NIHR Guy’s and St Thomas’ CRF provides researchers from the trust and King’s College London with world-class facilities and expertise to support the development of new therapies that will improve the care of our patients.”
We continue with our ambition to be a world-leading centre for healthcare innovations including advanced cell and gene therapies
Professor James Spicer, director of the NIHR Guy’s and St Thomas’ CRF, added: “This new NIHR award recognises the significant progress that we have already made in supporting the development and delivery of novel therapies.
“It will allow us to expand our portfolio and provide trial access for more researchers and their patients and it marks a significant contribution to our mission of testing new drugs and developing sophisticated imaging and personalised medicine for children and adult patients affected by a broad range of diseases.”