Novartis renews partnership with PHC as center of excellence

Novartis Healthcare Philippines and the Philippine Heart Center (PHC) have signed a memorandum of agreement (MOA) to renew their partnership in maintaining PHC’s status as a Center of Excellence in Clinical Trials.

“Novartis Healthcare Philippines is pleased to renew our partnership with the Philippine Heart Center in maintaining PHC’s status as a Center of Excellence in Clinical Trials. We renew our commitment to support the research and development of essential medicines and vaccines as well as to enhance the capabilities of PHC as a center of excellence in clinical studies and research in the Philippines,” said Cheryl Maley, president and managing director, Novartis Healthcare Philippines.

“As the country’s leader in upholding the highest standards of cardiovascular care, the Philippine Heart Center welcomes the renewal of our partnership with Novartis. Our continuing collaboration will enable the PHC to provide compassionate and expert cardiovascular care enhanced by world-class education and research, and to responsibly disseminate scientific and lay information to the public,” Dr. Joel Abanilla, PHC executive director said.

Leveraging its institutionalized R&D process, Novartis has extensive experience in conducting clinical research on a global scale and has one of the pharmaceutical industry’s most respected development pipelines, with more than 200 projects in clinical development (as of Dec. 31, 2017).

Many of these projects include the development of new molecular entities, existing products with additional indications and different formulations for marketed products – all could significantly advance treatment standards for patients worldwide.

To date, Novartis has invested approximately $3.95 million in clinical trials in the country.

Among pharmaceutical companies operating in the Philippines, Novartis currently has the most number of active recruiting trials in cardiovascular medicine with increasing number of pulmonary medicine trials.

The Philippine International Clinical Research Operations (ICRO) started its operations in 2008, with the allocation of two clinical trials on hypertension and type II diabetes mellitus.

Since then, 38 global clinical trials have been conducted in the country in the last three years in cardiovascular, respiratory, and integrated hospital care, enrolling 2,425 patients in over 215 sites.

Other centers of excellence supported by Novartis are located in the National Kidney and Transplant Institute, St. Luke’s Medical Center and Lung Center of the Philippines. At the signing of the memorandum of agreement to renew their partnership were (from left): Dr. Gilbert Vilela, department manager for education, training, and research, PHC; Dr. Joel Abanilla, executive director, PHC; Cheryl Maley, country president and managing director, Novartis Healthcare Philippines; and Dr. Francis Domingo, chief scientific officer, Novartis Healthcare Philippines.