Clinical Drug Trials — A Growth Industry In GA.

Patients with a common form of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma will soon be involved in a clinical trial at three sites in Georgia.

They’ll be part of a large trial by the manufacturer Roche/Genentech, testing a promising new drug to treat the disease, which is a form of cancer.

The trial is one example of the growing biopharmaceutical research presence in Georgia.

Biopharmaceutical companies are conducting or have conducted more than 3,600 clinical trials of new drugs in the state, according to a new report from PhRMA, a trade group for the brand-name pharmaceutical industry.

About half of those trials have targeted six major diseases: asthma, cancer, diabetes, heart disease, mental illness and stroke.

Universities, hospitals and research centers across the state have participated in the trials. The non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma drug trial is taking place in Macon and Columbus, and will soon come to Rome and perhaps Atlanta.

Seeking Georgia sites for the clinical trial, Roche/Genentech approached Georgia CORE, a collaboration of clinicians, scientists, educators and others that seeks to improve the quality of cancer care in the state through research.

One advantage of such trials is that they help give Georgia patients access to cutting-edge therapies, says Dr. Frederick Schnell, medical director of Georgia CORE.

Georgia is in the middle of the pack among states in the number of biopharmaceutical clinical trials, behind states such as California, Florida, Massachusetts, North Carolina and Pennsylvania, says Jeff Trewhitt, a PhRMA spokesman.

But Georgia has the infrastructure for more growth, he says. “Georgia has done a good job in the last 10 years in encouraging this development with tax breaks and incentives for these companies.’’

Despite the state’s economic troubles in recent years, bioscience employment has remained steady in Georgia, according to a recent University of Georgia report. It showed the life sciences industry (which includes medical device makers) and university research, along with the CDC, have a $23 billion annual economic impact on the state, employing more than 105,000 people.

It’s an industry every state covets because of its high-paying jobs and economic impact.

Among the biopharmaceutical clinical trials taking place in the state is one occurring at the AIDS Research Consortium of Atlanta. It’s the first therapeutic trial to use an HIV vaccine candidate from GeoVax Labs, a company based in Atlanta.

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Source: Georgia Health News