Nova Biomedical, headquartered in Waltham Massachussetts, is a world leader in the development and manufacturing of state-of-the-art medical devices, diagnostic equipment and specifically in vitro diagnostics. Nova Biomedical is widely known as the world leader in whole blood critical care technology to hospitals.

C-TRIC undertook technical testing and a diabetic patient evaluation of Nova Biomedical’s Nova Max Plus self-monitoring blood glucose meters (SMBG) which proved to be more accurate than other leading brand SMBG’s.

Inaccurate glucose readings due to hematocrit (Hct) interference, maltose interference or other factors can increase the risk of inappropriate management of diabetes. Nova Max Plus was shown to be unaffected by Hct or non-glucose sugars, and provided the least total error of the meters tested. Nova Max Plus performed best versus widely recognized International Standards Organization accuracy criteria (ISO 15197).

The study outcomes were presented recently at the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD).

Dr Maurice O’Kane, C-TRIC Chief Executive said “C-TRIC is specifically designed to assist bioscience industry to clinically evaluate and improve their technologies. Nova Biomedical have a strong reputation for quality and I am in no doubt that this study has enhanced their reputation”

Jeff DuBois, VP Medical & Scientific Affairs at Nova Biomedical said ‘Working in partnership with C-TRIC has proved to be a hugely effective strategy in raising awareness of our SMBG products within the European healthcare market’

Barry Henderson, Business Development Manager, C-TRIC concluded ‘We are working with a range of US based diagnostics companies to reduce the time and costs associated with European market entry. Our work with Nova Biomedical represents an excellent case study’.

The Minister said: “With an increase in demand on our health service, we need to keep one step ahead by investing in research and development and innovations and technologies.  C-TRIC specialises in reducing both the time and cost in developing innovative health technologies, medical devices and treatments.

“Not only does this benefit the patient as they can access better treatments more quickly, it also benefits the local economy.  It is well recognised that economic and health benefits will arise through collaboration between the business, academic and clinical stakeholders, particularly in areas of research and development.”

Professor Tony Bjourson, Director of the Biomedical Sciences Research Institute and C-TRIC Board Member stated that:

“Establishment of these Translational Research Groups at C-TRIC is a significant step forward.  Academic researchers, clinicians and patients have a unique opportunity to work together in the common endeavor of making sure that laboratory based research is converted into useful diagnostics and treatments to primarily help patients, but also to drive economic prosperity – that is only achieved if our discoveries are commercially developed into new diagnostics or drugs.  Biomedical Sciences achievements are already impressive – it obtained the highest possible ratings in every UK wide Research Assessment Exercises (RAEs) since 1996.  Our biomedical, nutritional and molecular biology research underpins and feeds our impressive pipeline of novel personalized medicine diagnostics and new drugs for treating degenerative diseases.  I really look forward to the appointment of a number of very high caliber research lecturers at C-TRIC and I am very grateful to ILEX for part-funding the first such appointment to the Translational Research Group.’

Professor Maurice O’Kane, (C-TRIC Chief Executive and Director of Research at the Western Trust) stated “Establishment of these Translational Research Groups signals C-TRIC’s desire to become a leading player with respect to Translational Medicine within the UK and Ireland. We will also host our 4th Annual Translational Medicine Conference in May next year which will focus on two keys areas of inflammatory processes and cardiovascular disease, showcasing the research emerging from US, Europe and our relevant Translational Research Groups.”

Professor Hugh McKenna stated “It is pleasing to see how C-TRIC has evolved in recent years. This has strengthened collaborations between clinicians and researchers in the Western Health and Social Care Trust and the University of Ulster. I have no doubt that the creation of these new Clinical Research Groups will enhance further the quality of research activities and outputs and have the desired ripple effect on improving the quality and safety of patient care”.

The Minister concluded; “I would like to congratulate C-TRIC on receiving a number of awards for their innovative economic development work and for helping companies who work with them to achieve the same.  I and my Department will do everything possible to support R&D within the current financial position.”

C-TRIC was formed as a partnership between the University of Ulster, the Western Health & Social Care Trust (WHSCT) and Derry City Council (DCC).  The new Groups in C-TRIC are located at the Altnagelvin hospital, the second largest acute teaching hospital in Northern Ireland, which provides access to a large patient population from a diversity of disease areas.  The new C-TRIC  Research Groups will focus on the translation of clinical research and development of innovative health technologies, medical devices and therapeutics enabling the streamlining of new discoveries through a focused ‘bench to point of care’ approach. This work of the new researchers will also create commercial opportunities to develop and exploit partnerships between academic researchers, clinical practitioners and industry.  The work of C-TRIC is important for attracting global pharmaceutical and diagnostic companies to the region and in the current economic downturn directly addresses the key UK Government, Invest Northern Ireland and Department of Trade & Investment (DETI policy of ensuring University research is translated and has maximum impact.

Notes to Editors:

Background Information:

Notes on Personalized Medicine: Personalised Medicine can be described as: the right treatment for the right person at the right time.  It has been identified as a priority for support by the DET Matrix panel for investment over the next 5-10 years.   People are all very different with regard to what they eat, the different stresses or environmental exposures they encounter and each persons DNA is unique to them.  These differences play a fundamental role in an individual’s health and disease and our genetic makeup can strongly influence how each of us react to different environmental exposures, risk of developing disease and specific genetic differences can also determine why a particular drug or treatment may work for one person and not another.

Currently, patient symptoms, their family history along with a relatively small number of diagnostic tests are used to diagnose illness and inform the best treatment options.  For many common illnesses, doctors may order additional diagnostic tests before diagnosing the problem and ordering a prescription drug.  In some cases however, when a person takes a prescribed drug it may or may not work, or worse still, the patient may suffer an adverse drug reaction, and may be taken off that drug and prescribed an yet another alternative.   This is not surprising as it is now recognised that 30-40% of prescribed medications do not work in the individual to which it is prescribed.  So in current medical practice there is a degree of trial and error involved.  Prescriptions are frequently based on a diagnosis informed by a relatively small amount of information compared to what is technically possible if a patients genetic information is included in the decision process – that’s the promise of personalised medicine – it has the potential to massively increase the volume of information available about an individual personally that has the potential to really significantly impact on how we prevent, diagnose and treat disease.

For financial reasons, most currently available blockbuster drugs have been developed by pharmaceutical companies based on the fact that they are effective on the largest number of people in the population.  The definition of a blockbuster drug is one that will have annual sales of $1 bn.  It is widely recognised however that many if not all drugs don’t actually suit everyone, and some people will derive no benefit or worse still suffer adverse drug reactions.  For example 2.2 million people are hospitalised and 100,000 people die each year due to adverse drug reactions in the USA, at a cost to the economy of an estimated $100 billion.  So a “one drug fits all” approach to drug development and prescription has largely been the practice to date.

The completion of the Human Genome Project in 2003 and advances genetic medicine since then has enabled an incremental increase in potential to screen for disease and drug response.  For some diseases a persons genetic inheritance will mean that they are very likely to develop a particular disease.  But for many diseases such as heart disease, stroke, neurodegerative disease, cancer and diabetes, while an individual may be at risk of developing a particular disease, the risks can be dramatically reduced or even completely eliminated by modification of lifestyle or diet, or by avoiding certain things in the environment.  In fact for the majority of diseases it is the combination of lifestyle, diet, environment and genetic inheritance that will determine if and when an individual develops a particular disease.

So each of our DNA sequences are unique and personal to us, and some of these differences are referred to as single nucleotide polymorphisms or SNPS for short.  Analysing variant SNPs at particular locations in different peoples genes can be correlated with various traits, such as ethnic group, predisposition to major disease, or drug responses.  Even which genes are turned on or off in an individual can be regulated by a process known as methylation, analogous to having a band aid covering a particular genes “on-off” switch (called a gene promoter), and our diet or amazingly the diets and lifestyles of our parents and grandparents can influence which genes are methylated and turned on or off in future generations (referred to as transgenerational epigentics).

In addition, C-TRIC will participate in the Partners Healthcare 7th Annual Personalized Medicine Conference.  Personalized Medicine involves the use of genetic testing to ensure that the right treatment, for the right person, at the right time is provided rather than the traditional ‘one size fits all’ approach. C-TRIC is developing a strong international profile in this area.

Only last month Dr Maurice O’Kane, Chief Executive of C-TRIC and Eddie Friel, Executive Director in C-TRIC participated in a trade mission to Boston to further develop it’s academic and industry linkages, attending a series of workshops and events aimed at developing R&D collaborations in the areas of Diabetes, Bioengineering and Connected Health between Northern Ireland and Massachussetts. The significance of these meetings organized through the Northern Ireland Massachussetts Connection, (NIMAC) was reflected by the participation of Therese Murray, President of the Massachusetts Senate and Mr. Edwin Poots, Health Minister, Northern Ireland.

During this visit Dr Maurice O‘Kane also met with C-TRIC client company, Nova Biomedical Corporation based in Waltham, MA, who develop and manufacture blood analyzers to support the care of ill patients, to discuss ongoing R&D collaborations.

In relation to his visit Dr Maurice O‘Kane said, ‘The global life and health science industry is seeking speedier and more cost effective R&D pipelines,  by engaging closely as we have this week with key academic and industry stakeholders  we can ensure C-TRIC remains well positioned to deliver high quality solutions for the sector. Boston is well recognized as a global biotech hub and the many historical linkages with the north west of Ireland make it a very natural choice with respect to location when deciding where to do business in the US’

Last month C-TRIC also hosted visits from Massachusetts Life Sciences Center and patientslikeme, a groundbreaking healthcare social networking site founded by three MIT engineers in 2006. C-TRIC’s International Advisory Panel also draws heavily from the Boston area with two high profile thought leaders involved in the biotech sector, namely, Susan Whoriskey, Senior Vice President at Moderna Therapeutics and former Entrepreneur in Residence-Life Sciences at MIT and Executive Director, Business Development at Partners HealthCare.

Barry Henderson, Business Development Manager at C-TRIC, concluded ‘There is now a great deal of traffic between the Boston area and the North West of Ireland with respect to the life and health science sector and we are seeing commercial opportunities being converted into new business revenues for organizations and businesses across both regions.

Pictured are Trung Do, Executive Director, Business Development at Partners HealthCare and Barry Henderson, Business Development Manager at C-TRIC.

AIRO, a healthcare ‘Dashboard’, is a collaboration between the Western Health and Social Care Trust (Western Trust) and local company Future Healthcare NI.

Future Healthcare NI developed the AIRO Clinical Communicator, a web-based clinical task management dashboard, designed to improve the communication between doctors and nurses, which improves patient safety and reduces costs.

Dr Paul Moutray and Andreanne Clarke are the dual driving force behind AIRO. Paul, who is also a Clinical Consultant himself, says: “There are many examples within current healthcare of inefficient communication, for example practices around paging systems. These systems seem increasingly antiquated in light of advances in data transfer and smartphone technology.”

Maurice O’Kane, Chief Executive of C-TRIC said, “We are delighted that a C-TRIC project has won one of the £25K Awards and that AIRO has repeated the success we had last year with SmartAir Medical winning the biotech category with their novel method monitoring the delivery of inhaled medication.”

Dr Geoff Nesbitt, Director of Quality and Safety at the Western Trust added: “We are always keen to explore new and innovative ways of improving clinical practice for the benefit of our patients. Good communication is central to the provision of high quality care in the health care service .”

The purpose-built centre brings healthcare, technology and research under one roof to facilitate the development of innovative products and services.

Developed as a joint partnership between the University of Ulster, Western Health and Social Care Trust (Western Trust) and Derry City Council, C-TRIC beat off stiff competition to collect the Public Sector Award at the Derry City Business awards.

Last year C-TRIC was named Best Cross-border innovation project at The Irish Times Intertrade Ireland Innovation awards.

Ulster’s Office of Innovation was instrumental in establishing and operating C-TRIC. The 9,000 sq ft complex, in the grounds of the Western Trust’s Altnagelvin Hospital campus, is a one-stop-shop for technology entrepreneurs, academic medical and healthcare researchers, and commercially-funded clinical studies.

C-TRIC – Clinical Translational Research and Innovation Centre – is the only facility of its kind in either Ireland or Britain. Translational medicine is the term used for the ‘bench-to-bedside’ approach to R&D within international healthcare. C-TRIC aims to reduce the cost of research into innovative health technologies and medical devices by speeding up the time for the research to be converted into practice. In the United States, health organisations invest an estimated $500 million annually in 60 such centres.

C-TRIC’s Chief Executive Dr Maurice O’Kane said: “This award reflects the great support which has been afforded to us by our founders, Western Health and Social Care Trust, University of Ulster and Derry City Council. C-TRIC has now received both local and international recognition for our innovative work in areas such as personalised medicine, connected health and medical device design.”

Eddie Friel, Head of Business Liaison and Academic Enterprise at the University of Ulster says the award is a great boost for everyone involved in C-TRIC.

“I hope this latest achievement will help to spread the message to the biotechnology sector and business community at home and abroad that C-TRIC is achieving results and is growing from strength to strength. C-TRIC is a key component of the North West’s economic development portfolio, and is helping to make the region increasingly attractive to inward investors.”

Congratulating the C-TRIC team, Mayor Alderman Maurice Devenney said: “Derry City Council is proud to be a leading partner in the continued development of C-TRIC. It is great news that C-TRIC’s economic potential is now being realized with a number of pioneering entrepreneurs based at the centre.”

The Mayor said that C-TRIC had become “a real magnet for inward investment”, attracting interest from the US, UK and Europe.

“We look forward to continuing our working partnership with the Health Trust and University of Ulster in ensuring the continued success and development of C-TRIC and the wider development of health and life sciences sector,” Alderman Devenney said.

Last week the ‘Journal’ revealed that an international pharmaceutical company Global Centre for Pharmaceutical Excellence (GPCE) is looking to locate a state-of-the-art laboratory facility in Ireland, preferably Derry.

The centre will act as a hub for worldwide pharmaceutical companies involved in cutting-edge research and development projects – and could create hundreds of jobs.

‘Inflammatory Processes &
Cardiovascular Disease

-Innovative Healthcare for Challenging Times’

Date: 10th & 11th May 2012
Venue: City Hotel, Derry/Londonderry, N.Ireland, UK

Celebrating its fourth successful year, the event is recognised as a leading international conference in translational medicine. Over 160 international delegates including clinicians, academics and businesses attended in 2011 from USA, UK, Ireland, Mainland Europe and Asia and the conference continues to grow in stature each year.

A better understanding of the role of inflammation in the pathogenesis of a range of disease processes, including cardiovascular disease has led to the development of novel biomarkers and innovative approaches to treatment. Building on the themes explored last year, our 4th Annual Translational Medicine Conference will have a dual focus on Inflammatory Processes and Cardiovascular Disease and there will be dedicated tracks addressing both areas.

The conference will also explore the interplay between inflammation and cardiovascular disease and the translation of these new concepts into the clinical domain. The conference targets academics, clinicians, researchers and bioindustry R&D managers with the aim of encouraging collaboration and communication to inform research and clinical interventions.

In addition to focusing on the specific disease processes and areas outlined above, other topics covered will include:

• Open innovation in bioscience
• The increasing role of technology/apps in disease management
• Leading trends in healthcare innovation
• Regulatory and governance issues
• Challenges and obstacles in translational medicine

Programme Outline

(Full Conference programme will be available shortly, please click on a date below for details)

Thursday 10^th May

Friday 11^th May

Confirmed Speakers to Date:

More speaker confirmations to follow soon….

Registration Fee:

Early Bird before 02/03/12 = £50.00;
Full Registration Fee = £85.00;
Registration Fee for WHSCT/UU Staff = £45.00

Please contact info@c-tric.com for further information.

‘Tackling the Burden of Chronic Illness associated with Diabetes and Mental Health’

5-6 May 2011 City Hotel, Derry/Londonderry

Speakers Confirmed:

or register your interest at knowledgeclub@ulster.ac.uk

‘Investing in R&D’ Lunchtime Workshop – Monday, 7 March 2011

C-TRIC is hosting a lunchtime workshop.

The workshop aims to highlight both the innovation infrastructure and the continuum of funding support that is now available in the North West. Local businesses, innovators and entrepreneurs can access this support enabling research and development of new products and services in a range of knowledge intensive sectors including creative media, life and health sciences and sustainable technologies.

C-TRIC, a joint initiative between the University of Ulster, the Western Health and Social Care Trust and Derry City Council, acts as an enabler and catalyst for research and innovation across healthcare and medicine.

Programme
12.00noon – Lunch/Networking
12.25pm – Welcome and Introduction
12.30pm – Bio-Entrepreneur Programme (Barry Henderson, C-TRIC)
12.50pm – iFactory Programme (Barney Toal, NORIBIC)
1.10pm – NISPO Funds (Paul Smyth, eSynergy)
1.30pm – Q&A
1.45pm – Close

The ‘Bio-Entrepreneur Programme’ is a dynamic new initiative that has been designed to support entrepreneurs, innovators and start-ups develop their innovations for better healthcare whether they are software related, medical devices, diagnostics or therapies.

The programme will provide tailored support comprising of the
use of hot-desk and/or lab facilities at C-TRIC for 12 months
(from 21st March 2011) and mentoring support from a mentor to
address a specific issue or barrier relating to the development
of your business idea.

How can the programme help me?

Healthcare Market Feasibility – Viability and commercial feasibility of
the business concept for the NHS and wider healthcare markets.

Prototyping – Physical prototype of a new product or service developed.

New Product Development – assistance with design or development of
a new product.

Applied Research – Focused applied research project contributing to
the development of new products, services, systems.

Testing – Use of University facilities or expertise in the testing of raw
materials or finished products.

Clinical Validation – Validating product for clinical effectiveness
including advice and assistance with IRAS and MHRA
regulatory approvals.

Innovate for Better Health!

If you are interested in participating in the Bio-Entrepreneur Programme Click Here To download an application form before Friday, 11th March 2011.

The project, which is part of the North West Business Technology Zone, was funded by Invest NI with £1.3m provided under INTERREG IIIa, and a further £464,000 through the Integrated Development Fund. The Western Trust contributed £300,000 and Derry City Council £200,000 towards the project.

The 9,000 sq ft facility is jointly operated and supported by the University of Ulster, Western Trust and Derry City Council. As the first “clinical translational research” centre on the island of Ireland, C-TRIC is developing rapidly. Six start-up firms and a University of Ulster health project are set to move into it.

As an incubation venture, C-TRIC will nurture new business ideas by providing rental workspace, top range laboratory facilities and world-class facilities for Research and Development (R&D) in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and healthcare sectors.

Invest NI’s Chief Executive, Alastair Hamilton, performed the official opening. Speaking at the event, Mr Hamilton said: “C-TRIC will further facilitate the commercialisation of knowledge by strengthening links between clinicians, academia and industry, becoming an integral part of the North West Business and Technology Zone. It will help established firms and new businesses to increasingly work at the cutting edge of R&D so they can maintain an advantage over their competitors, and exploit the global opportunities offered by the health and life sciences sector.”

Chairman of the Western Trust, Gerard Guckian, speaking at the launch stressed the importance of investment into health research, saying: “Investment in healthcare research leads to better outcomes in the care we provide.  This centre will serve as a blueprint, it will stimulate, cultivate and pioneer new ways of providing health and social care, it will act as a launch pad for attracting inward investment to the northwest region and will assist local industry to develop and deliver innovative healthcare products and services.”

The Mayor, Councillor Gerard Diver, said: “C-TRIC will help local businesses by enabling them to speed up both the exploration and application of new healthcare technology ideas. We are confident that it will further enhance our attractiveness to US biotechnology companies and to the medical device industry North and South.”
Ilex, the urban regeneration company, is the managing authority for the Integrated Development Fund which has provided over £450,000 towards the project. Gerard McCleave, Director of Strategy and Regeneration at Ilex said: “We see C-TRIC as a vehicle for turning new ideas into reality.  The quality of the projects chosen gives us great confidence in C-TRIC’s ability to continue to attract highly innovative projects.”

Professor Richard Barnett, Vice-Chancellor, University of Ulster, said: ”C-TRIC exemplifies the spirit of innovation that the University of Ulster brings to Northern Ireland and the vigour that the thriving Magee campus adds to the North-West in particular. It’s a classic demonstration of how academia, clinicians and business can work together to make a difference to the community whom we serve and a global community that desperately needs healthcare advances in so many fields.”

The “brains” behind the six business ventures include individuals who have long and productive experience in aspects of healthcare and biotechnology.  Four enterprises are medical device companies, one is a diagnostics firm and one a software venture.

Their activities focus on cardiac devices, respiratory health, wound management and deep-cleansing technologies aimed at reducing hospital-acquired infections.

Dr Maurice O’Kane, Head R&D Director with the Western Trust and Chief Executive of C-TRIC, says: “C-TRIC links the University’s research to the clinical and research expertise within the Western Trust. We hope the healthcare innovations that stem from it will have a role in improving the general health and well-being of the 290,000 people living in the western region.”

University of Ulster researchers will use the facility in recruiting and medically assessing one-third of participants in a 6,000 people island-wide survey, being conducted by four universities across Ireland, into ways of tackling osteoporosis, Alzheimer’s disease and stroke.

The C-TRIC project is due a further boost when business-people, academics, clinicians and medical technology researchers meet in Londonderry for a conference on its central theme – how clinical research can be translated into products and services. The conference is taking place in the City Hotel, Derry on 29-30 April 2009.

Ends….

For further information contact Communications Department, Western Health and Social Care Trust Tel: (028) 82835197 or (028) 71611429.