Member Article

Panthera and Rutherford Health launch innovative oncology clinical trial network

Panthera and Rutherford Health plc have entered a collaboration to create a network of world-class clinical trial sites for the development of new cancer treatments. The collaboration, called Panthera@theRutherford, combines Panthera’s expertise in managing and running clinical trials with Rutherford’s UK network of advanced centres and team of leading oncologists.

Rutherford’s independent network currently consists of four cancer treatment centres in Newport, Reading, Bedlington and Liverpool and will draw patients from all over the UK offering Pharma and CROs access to patients through more than 170 referring oncologists.

Each of the Rutherford Cancer Centres has state-of-the-art diagnostics including MRI, CT and proton beam therapy as well as offering chemotherapy, immunotherapy and radiotherapy treatments. These facilities combined with leading oncologists, Panthera’s clinical trial professionals and an experienced cancer care team ensure that patients will receive the highest possible standard of care.

Mike Moran, CEO Rutherford Health plc commented “We are delighted to partner with Panthera to provide professional cancer research in our centres. By collaborating with Panthera and our team of oncologists, we will be at the forefront of research into innovative therapies and we’ll be able to offer more opportunities to patients and access to life-saving treatments.”

“This really is a breakthrough partnership. Over 30% of all global clinical trials planned for 2020 are cancer trials; bringing research and cancer care together in one place will provide pharma and CROs the opportunity to undertake clinical trials with unrivalled access to more than 40 types of cancer and have access to millions of potential patients when there is a great shortage of top class sites” commented Dr Ian Smith, Chief Medical Officer of Panthera who was formerly founder of Synexus.

Ian, with co-founder Prof. John Lyon, previously a senior executive with Covance, launched Panthera in 2018 and have quickly assembled one of the most experienced teams of clinical trial specialists in the industry. Panthera is already talking to pharma and CROs who have shown great interest in and hopes to have the first trials in place in the next few months. As trial complexity increases, Panthera@theRutherford sites will enable larger patient commitments to drastically improve the cost-effectiveness and speed of running cancer trials in the UK.

Panthera Biopartners was founded by Dr Ian Smith – founder of Synexus - and Professor John Lyon – previously senior executive in Covance and serial entrepreneur - in July 2019 to provide CROs and pharma clients with services relating to the recruitment and running of clinical trials at customised clinical trial sites by GCP trained healthcare professionals.

The first Panthera site was opened in Preston, UK in November 2019. Today, Panthera has a growing network of its own sites across the UK managing studies in a variety of conditions in both primary care settings and hospital sites running trials in key secondary care conditions such as CNS, oncology and NASH with specialist investigators.

Rutherford Health plc is the UK incorporated holding company of a group committed to providing innovative cancer care of the highest quality. The Group’s oncology centres in the UK, named The Rutherford Cancer Centres, offer a comprehensive range of cancer treatments to patients including proton beam therapy (“PBT”), conventional radiotherapy, chemotherapy, immunotherapy, imaging and wellbeing services. The company was founded in 2015 by Mike Moran and UK and international cancer experts, including Professor Karol Sikora, former head of the World Health Organisation’s cancer programme.

The Rutherford Cancer Centres feature the most advanced technologies and Rutherford Health plc has formed a partnership with IBA (Ion Beam Applications), the world’s leading provider of proton beam therapy solutions and Philips, a leader in health technology.

All centres offer proton beam therapy to medically-insured private patients, self-paying patients and NHS patients where the Rutherford is commissioned to provide these services.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by VPR .