Oxford University Hospitals (OUH) has received £1 million to fund state-of-the-art research facilities and equipment, much of it to allow its pharmacy team to meet growing demand.
The funding was awarded after a competitive process by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) as part of its capital funding to NHS organisations across England that are part of its wider infrastructure, such as Biomedical Research Centres (BRC) and Clinical Research Facilities (CRF).
“We are delighted to receive this funding, which will not only support NIHR-related research at OUH, but also increase the Trust’s ability to leverage additional funding from research funders, including commercial companies,” said Professor Adrian Banning, OUH Director of Research and Development.
“This funding gives us another opportunity to cement the fruitful collaboration between the Trust and the University of Oxford, who are working together to develop revolutionary new treatments that improve the lives of our patients.”
OUH’s pharmacy team, which is responsible for making up these new and often complex treatments, has reached capacity and needs new equipment and space to continue to support more clinical trials. While additional space was found, this needs to be refurbished to provide the necessary security and environmental controls for the storage of clinical trial supplies.
The NIHR funding will allow the purchase of a two-glove isolator, essential for preparing individual doses of trial medicines, and dedicated freezers, refrigerators and racking for storing these drugs, as well as substantial funding for the associated refurbishment to accommodate the equipment.
Michelle Taylor-Siddons, OUH Associate Director of Pharmacy for Clinical Trials, Research and Manufacturing, said: “This is an exciting time for the pharmacy clinical trials team, with the recent opening of the temporary Pharmacy Clinical Trials Unit (CTU), which has allowed us to handle and prepare state-of-the-art advanced therapy medicinal products (ATMPs), and with the increase in commercial drug trials.”