Accelovance has launched a program focused on advancing early-phase oncology clinical research efforts, which the company says haven’t received enough support from the CRO industry.
The initiative, dubbed HERO (Helping Early Research in Oncology), will help promising oncology researchers, especially at small biopharma companies, through the early phases of development.
“There’s no shortage of outsourcing options for therapy developers, but too many of those options simply aren’t viable for sponsors in the early phase,” said Stephen Trevisan, president and CEO of Accelovance, in a statement.
The goal of building such a program is to expedite trial start-up time to about eight weeks, about half the time of the industry average, and hence allow sponsors to reach decisions faster on whether candidates are worth pursuing, the company said.
To help run the program, Accelovance is bringing resources and services usually accessible to oncology R&D programs in later phases into HERO.
The Rockville, MD-based CRO isn’t shifting its focus of expertise with this new program. It actually has a track record of phase 1-2 oncology capabilities, and the company takes pride in it, saying on its website that it “is where Accelovance excels and differentiates itself from other CROs.”
The initiative is instead coming “from a marketing perspective to drive market awareness and that Accelovance is taking a different and more collaborative approach to supporting Sponsors in early phase oncology research,” said John Colby, assistant vice president of proposals and marketing at Accelovance.
Colby said the company has been working on the program for almost two years. It has developed site relationships with early-phase oncology centers of excellence; built eCRF and TFL libraries for faster deployment, analysis and cost savings; and selected products for inclusion in the program’s clinical technology suite, which supports data analytics, mining and monitoring.
The company is inviting early-stage oncology researchers to submit their protocol and concept documents for complimentary, confidential reviews.