Brentwood, TN August 14, 2006
–
Discovery Alliance International, a clinical trials
management firm, announced today its corporate name
change to Compass Point Research.
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By the time a new drug
reaches clinical trials, the sponsor
typically has invested millions of
dollars and many years in the
pre-clinical testing phase. So
sponsors have a lot riding on the
Principal Investigators they select to
conduct their clinical trials.
Many years ago, most clinical trials
were conducted in academic settings
where PI’s are established researchers
working within a substantial research
infrastructure. As the need for
speed has driven many sponsors away from
these traditional settings and into the
community, the PI selection process has
become more critical. Regardless
of the setting, Discovery Alliance is
choosy about the PI’s with whom we
partner to conduct clinical trials.
We focus on the following core areas
when selecting PI’s:
1)
PATIENT ACCESS:
This is an obvious requirement.
The PI must have either sufficient
patients in his/her practice or a strong
referral network to meet enrollment
goals.
2)
MOTIVATION:
Physicians should be motivated by a
natural interest in the advancement of
science and a desire to provide patients
access to additional treatment options.
Any physician who is motivated primarily
by the revenue stream associated with
clinical trials is not a good candidate.
Such PI’s are at risk of putting their
financial interests ahead of the
interests of the research participants.
3)
ATTENTION TO DETAIL:
While Discovery Alliance provides the
research staff, standard operating
procedures, and regulatory expertise for
our PI’s, we look for PI’s who
understand the importance of regulatory
issues and careful documentation.
4)
INTEGRITY:
Since integrity is one of our
organizational values, we place utmost
importance on this value in our PI’s.
To further emphasize this, we now
require PI’s who are new to Discovery
Alliance to complete a training program
that includes a course on human subjects
protections and to agree in writing to
comply with Discovery Alliance’s
Compliance and Ethics Policy and the
Belmont Report.
5)
CUSTOMER SERVICE:
Also one of our organizational values,
customer service is essential from our
PI’s. We expect our PI’s to
respond to staff requests promptly and
to be available to research participants
and study monitors.
Discovery
Alliance is committed to carefully
selecting our PI partners. These
selection criteria have evolved from
years of experience in the clinical
trials business. This focus on PI
character and results helps us provide a
good return on investment to sponsors
who select us for their clinical trials.
Karen Pellegrin, PhD, MBA
President
