NZ a haven for trials
Medical research companies from the United States and Europe are starting to shift clinical trials to New Zealand because of its lack of Covid-19 restrictions.
Being largely Covid-free means New Zealand has a population with almost no movement restrictions and extremely few cases, which means there is little chance Covid19 will affect the outcome.
Christian Schwabe, managing director of medical research site Auckland Clinical Studies, said New Zealand was already starting to attract phase 1 and 2 clinical trials before the coronavirus hit.
But now that many clinical trials are on hold in North America and Europe due to coronavirus, sponsors were looking at transferring them to New Zealand, or starting them here.
Part of the attraction was New Zealand’s Covid- 19 strategy, which gave researchers a promise of much more certainty, compared with other countries which were going in and out of lockdown.
Clinical trial interest is so great that the 35 beds at Auckland Clinical Studies were full, he said.
Pharmaceutical Solutions, a clinical research organisation which liaises with and sets up trials for mostly international medical firms, agreed New Zealand had become an attractive location.
The company had seen a large increase in requests for proposals from both US and European biotech and pharma companies since the virus hit, managing director Jacquie Palmer said.
Trials could cost millions of dollars if they were put on hold, and so these companies were looking at New Zealand and Australia as
‘‘The impact here is huge, if we can get more of them coming across.’’ Jacquie Palmer
Pharmaceutical Solutions managing director alternative locations.
Palmer said about 90 per cent of her business was with international clients ‘‘and I’d say predominantly most of the research market in New Zealand is 90 per cent international clients’’.
‘‘So the impact here is huge, if we can get more of them coming across and doing their studies and trials down in this region.’’
The good news was that New Zealand still had plenty of capacity to accommodate them, she said.
One company trialling in New Zealand is Azura Ophthalmics, an Israeli biotech company developing treatments for Meibomian Gland Dysfunction, a top cause of dry eye disease.
Azura is currently running phase 2 studies across four sites in New Zealand. Chief executive Marc Gleeson said this country was an obvious choice, given its effective management of Covid-19.
During Auckland’s brief second lockdown, Gleeson said the trial sites had to work extra hard to hit recruitment times and targets, but they achieved it.
Palmer says New Zealand offered many other advantages apart from its relative Covid-free certainty.
The country’s centralised ethics and regulatory processes were efficient and robust, with very quick review timelines, the data collection was high quality, and the country had lower labour costs compared to North America and Europe.
The country’s small size and its restricted access to drugs through a single drug-funding regime, Pharmac, meant the industry was collegial and could meet patient recruitment targets. ‘‘Access to innovative and new medications is low in NZ and this does generate a lot of interest by patients, eager to access these new drugs, available through clinical trials.’’