The Pharmacy Clinical Trials and Research Team play an essential role in the successful delivery of clinical trials, ensuring research studies are conducted efficiently and safely. Meet the team, learn about their roles and hear how they’ve had a successful year.
At six people, with the potential for another new starter, the Pharmacy Research team is the largest it has ever been. Over the past year they have been working with R&D to streamline processes, which has allowed them to double their study setups from three to six each month.
Balancing commercial and non-commercial research
The increase in study setups by Pharmacy Research has meant that they have hit their target of increasing the number of commercial studies they support by at least 50% over the past year. This is significant since commercial research generates revenue that helps fund the pharmacy team’s roles, the infrastructure needed for research, and creates opportunity for NBT to fund its own research projects. This provides opportunities for innovative studies which may not have an immediate commercial impact but are essential for advancing medical knowledge and patient care.
Simon Holloway, Pharmacy Clinical Trials & Research Team Manager, says: “We’re working with the Commercial team and research facilitators with the aim to achieve a 50:50 balance of commercial and non-commercial research, allowing us to have an even greater positive impact on patient care.” The current research portfolio that Pharmacy support consists of around 80 commercial and 70 non-commercial studies.
Who’s in the Pharmacy Research Team and what do they do?
Manager: Simon Holloway (top left)
Simon oversees the team, focusing on service development, financial management, and ensuring alignment with both the R&D and NBT Trust strategies. He handles invoicing, payment issues, and study amendments, ensuring that the team operates smoothly and meets its objectives.
Senior Pharmacy Technician – Clinical trials: Annie Challoner (top centre)
Annie’s role involves assessing the feasibility of new research projects, and ensuring the team has the capacity and capability to deliver the research. She considers aspects such as medicine storage and sample labelling, and liaises with specialist pharmacists for clinical input, making sure that all clinical aspects are covered.
Specialist Pharmacy Technicians - Clinical trials: Eleanor Helps (top right), Kyle James (bottom left), and Joana Cancino (bottom centre)
These technicians are responsible for the setup of studies. They develop dispensing procedures, ensure all necessary logs and prescription forms are in place, and manage the practical aspects of delivering the research. This includes storage requirements for medication, how to dispense what we need and document the dispensing, and how the products and samples are labelled.
Pharmacy Administrator: Sharon Hook (bottom right)
Sharon oversees the maintenance of studies, including checking for expired products, managing documents and patient returns, handling finance-related tasks, and managing the team’s mailbox and meetings. She plays a crucial role in ensuring that the administrative aspects of research are well-managed, and Pharmacy often receives positive recognition from CRAs during monitoring visits due to Sharon’s attention to detail and timely completion of maintenance activities.
Collaboration with study teams
The Pharmacy Research team works closely with R&D and study stakeholders to ensure that all aspects of the research are coordinated and executed well. Some of the ways they achieve this include:
- Attending Site Evaluation Visits to understand the requirements of upcoming research studies and to assess their feasibility.
- Coordination with R&D through regular meetings to help streamline processes and ensure that everyone is aligned with the study schedules and targets.
- Liaison with Sponsors, ensuring all necessary documents and resources are available for the study setup.
What’s next?
The team has a number of projects on the go, including undertaking some process mapping with R&D to help understand how workflow can be streamlined and allow for better, more efficient collaboration with the different teams involved in getting a study set up and open to recruitment. Completion of this work will help the team get closer to that 50:50 balance and streamline the feasibility/setup of new clinical trials, subsequently freeing extra capacity.