Wellcome Trust Children's Clinical Research Facility

The new Wellcome Trust Children’s Clinical Research Facility (WTCCRF) at the Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital (RMCH) opened in November 2009. It is the first specialist paediatric clinical trials unit in the North West and one of only four in the UK.

The new unit has six beds and access to RMCH’s state of the art equipment and highly trained nursing staff, so that children can take part in in-patient studies of new therapies and medicines alongside their ongoing treatment. It offers paediatric medicine experts, and pharmaceutical companies developing new medicines, a specialist facility which complies with all current clinical trials and research legislation.

Current and planned trials in the WTCCRF include a study led by Dr Simon Jones, involving a new therapy from Californian company BioMarin Pharmaceutical. It is the first trial in humans of a treatment which replaces the missing enzyme in a condition known as Morquio disease or MPS type IV. Children with this condition have a severe skeletal deformity and often this is severely life-limiting. Researchers at Great Ormond Street and Birmingham Children’s Hospitals are also working on this study.

The facility can be used for patients requiring either the administration of a complex medical therapy (e.g. a chemotherapeutic, immunosuppressive or enzyme replacement agent), where the administration of a drug is followed by complex intervention (e.g. a multiple point pharmacokinetic study), or for prolonged visits requiring intensive investigation or observation. It comprises a four-bed bay and a two-bed room, plus an office and administrative support area. Extensive emergency medical facilities are close by, creating a safe environment for even the most complex clinical trials.

Click here to find out more about the WTCCRF.