Through Editorial staff La Presse de la Manche
Published on 9 Feb 21 at 7:21
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Clinical trials, laboratories, research units… Since the start of the epidemic, this lexical field has entered everyday language and represents the hope, in these dark times, of an exit from the health crisis.
Often, all eyes are on the big hospitals or the private giants of the pharmaceutical industry. But like a few smaller sites in France, the Cotentin public hospital (CHPC) is also involved in this area of research.
Every test brings knowledge
Created in 2015, the Cherbourg unit is made up of four people (2.8 full-time jobs, for Doctor Bertrand Sauneuf, medical manager, and a steering committee made up of directors and doctors) and participates in clinical trials.
“There are several categories of clinical trials. Here we cooperate in all trials, but always with minimal risk, interventional or not. It is, for example, a guide box for the external cardiac massage to be tested. But we do not have the authorizations to carry out the early phase studies. Neither do we have access to industrial trials on new molecules or the possibility of validating, for example, the marketing of new drugs ”, explains Aude Grebert-Manuardi, the coordinating engineer of the investigation and activity. promotion.
“It is also a drug that is administered at a certain stage of cancer, and that a project leader wishes to try earlier to try to avoid progression,” she continues.
If the trial seems less flashy, it is just as important in the search for a suitable treatment.
Failure is never failure. This helps to determine if this medicine can be given earlier. You have to know this in order to move forward and look for another method, if necessary. All the protocols are created.
These works are particularly supervised. Funding, regulations, patient selection, relations between promoters, investigating physicians, coordination between departments… This is the heart of the work of the clinical research unit.
Supervised work
“We centralize research work and provide support for all CHPC professionals, in order to facilitate their work, to lighten the doctors’ agenda”, summarizes Aude Grebert-Manuardi.
The promoters, those who initiate a trial, can be professionals from the CHPC or from all over France.
“We can receive a test protocol from anywhere and respond because we have patients who can match the criteria,” explains the activity coordinator.
From study to study, the seriousness of the Cherbourg team is more and more appreciated. This may, in passing, result in access to new funding.
Develop unity
For the moment, the costs generated by open studies are not covered by the budgets.
“It’s not our main goal, but we want to develop our unit,” the team explains. The more we participate in trials, the more we become known, and the more prospects we have to participate in important and profitable trials. “
Already, the unit represents an argument of attractiveness for doctors who seek to settle in a hospital open to research. And that’s a plus for patients.
“We support physicians so that they can spend time with patients and less on regulatory tasks related to the trial. We offer personalized follow-up to our patients who find themselves at the heart of their care, concludes Aude Grebert-Manuardi. Everyone finds their advantage. “
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