Coimbra leads national structure with the ambition of leveraging clinical trials

The PtCRIN consortium (Portuguese Infrastructure Network for Clinical Research), whose headquarters moved to Coimbra in March, intends to leverage several research projects and academic clinical trials initiated by Portuguese researchers in the coming years.

The announcement was made this Monday, at a press conference, at the Hospitals of the University of Coimbra, headquarters of the Local Health Unit (ULS) of Coimbra, which is a partner in this national structure, together with the University of Coimbra (UC).

“This infrastructure can only exist with good local foundations [ULS e Universidade de Coimbra]. PtCRIN will have management associated with Coimbra working for the country”, highlighted neurologist João Sargento Freitas, who has been heading that organization, created 10 years ago, since last month.

According to the doctor and assistant professor at the UC Faculty of Medicine, the first mission “is to continue all the great work that has already been done over the years and structure this work”.

“Then, among the many challenges we have, perhaps the main one, is leveraging clinical trials initiated by researchers based in Portugal”, highlighted the coordinator of the Stroke Unit at ULS in Coimbra.

Stressing that there are clinical trials in the pharmaceutical industry, “which are very important”, João Sargento Freitas recognized that the “heel of our national research is the clinical trials of researchers and academics”.

“This will be one of the main challenges, it will not be the only one, and if we manage to create the conditions here so that our infrastructure network and all of the country’s intellectual and scientific capacity can make this leap so that, at least, we can try to reach the level of other European countries”, he stressed.

“Our clear aim is to promote clinical trials in the coming years, because we have a lot of potential to do so”, he added.

The president of ULS of Coimbra, Alexandre Lourenço, said that there are currently more than 100 clinical trials in that structure in hospital areas alone, but that “the big problem is trials initiated by the researcher”.

“To offer better healthcare we need to have more research, which also generates wealth and more jobs”, highlighted the administrator.

The press conference also included the former coordinator of PtCRIN, Emília Monteiro, the director of the UC Faculty of Medicine, Carlos Robalo Cordeiro, and the doctor and researcher Tiago Alfaro, who is part of João Sargento Freitas’ team.

PtCRIN is a national structure for attracting, implementing and managing clinical trials initiated by multinational researchers, which for the last 10 years has been under the coordination of academic and researcher Emília Monteiro, from Universidade Nova de Lisboa.