CTC Clinical Trial Consultants of Uppsala, Sweden, and compatriot Recipharm Pharmaceutical Development of Solna, Stockholm, Sweden, have begun a collaboration to offer a complete set of packages for Phase I studies including development and manufacture of clinical trial material.

The scope of the cooperation will extend to planning, performing and evaluation of the clinical trial.

Maria Lundberg, general manager Recipharm Pharmaceutical Development, said the link-up will allow the two companies to offer customers faster and more cost-efficient phase I studies. "We can from now on take full responsibility for coordination of the work which might be valuable to small virtual companies."

CTC has "excellent experience" in clinical trials and a unique phase I unit at Uppsala University Hospital (Akademiska Sjukhuset), Lundberg noted.

Beyond shortening project timelines, Bengt Dahlström, CEO of CTC Clinical Trial said the systematic integrated approach will help the companies to obtain more information on the desirable properties of the drug formulation.

"Adaptive design," he said, "is a key element in getting more information from each study and modifying the design based on the data obtained all within a single protocol."