AstraZeneca Recognised for Clinical Research Excellence at US Clinical Researcher of the Year Competition

LONDON, April 13, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- AstraZeneca secured first position as the top clinical research team after competing in the US Clinical Researcher of the Year competition, hosted by fellow pharmaceutical company Shire. The US Clinical Researcher of the Year competition focused on a range of competencies including innovation, collaboration, leadership, compliance and oversight to determine the industry's finest researchers.

Increasing pressures on clinical researchand a recent spate of US Food and Drug Administration (FDA)483s, focused the finals on compliance and oversight and the finalists were presented with a scenario where they had to navigate an FDA 483 with appropriate action.

The competition was judged by 26 senior clinical heads from companies including Pfizer, Abbott, GlaxoSmithKline, Sanofi-Aventis and GSK, with additional judges drawn from leading CROs. The winners were announced to an audience of top researchers at a black-tie ceremony held later that evening.

AstraZeneca took the prize for the Clinical Team category. PRA International won the CRA category, Benchmark Research took the honours in Study Site and i3 won Trial Manager for the second year in succession.

Fifty-three finalists were identified from a pool of more than 100,000 researchers in the US based on a series of filters, including knowledge of IHC/GCP and a 1000-word response to a case study. Up to 10 finalists in each of the competition streams were invited to compete at an intensive finals day.

Sean Morgan-Jones, a director of UK based publisher, PharmaTimes and organisers of the competition commented: "Clinical Research is facing numerous challenges in an ever more competitive and regulated environment. Organisations are striving to achieve efficiencies by delivering more for less whilst maintaining quality standards. The US Researcher of the Year competition is a superb exemplar of what can be achieved through collaboration and working together towards a common goal." He added: "As chairman of the competition's Executive Steering Committee, I have the privilege of working closely with the judges and finalists and they are an inspiration in that they have demonstrated great leadership in having the courage to come forward and participate - they are to be congratulated because these are the qualities that will take clinical research forwards in the future."

The US Clinical Researcher of the Year 2012 is open for entry at http://www.usclinicalresearcher.com

For more information contact Sean Morgan-Jones at [email protected] Tel: +44-(0)20-8-487-9108

SOURCE US Clinical Researcher of the Year