News

HKU-CTC successfully hosted the 6^th ICN Steering Board Meeting and Annual General Meeting 2020 on 24-25 November, 2020. Participants engaged actively and had vivid discussions – even though the meetings were moved online due to the pandemic.

At the Steering Board Meeting, Mr. Henry Yau, Managing Director of HKU-CTC, was elected the new ICN Chairperson. He will work with the new Vice Chairperson, Dr. Christiane Blankenstein of Munich Study Center, Technical University of Munich, the ICN Steering Board, and the ICN Operations Team to contribute to the further development of ICN in the coming two years. The Steering Board also formulated a strategic plan towards realization of the values of “Global, Excellence, Harmonization, Impacts”.

The next ICN Steering Board Meeting and Annual General Meeting will be hosted by Cambridge Clinical Trials Unit (CCTU), Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust in November 2021.

(Available in Chinese only)

A new chapter of HKU-CTC Public Education Series named “Four Stages of Clinical Trials” was posted on HKU-CTC Facebook page on September 2, 2020.

Clinical research is an essence of medical advancement and a cornerstone of a robust health care system. In general, there are two types of clinical research – industry-sponsor studies and investigator-initiated studies (IISs) – whereas those initiated by investigators are increasingly important nowadays for its variety and diversity. They also bridge the research gaps on areas which are rarely covered by the industry. Facilitation of IISs is therefore a focus of The University of Hong Kong Clinical Trials Centre (HKU-CTC). In order to encourage investigators to initiate more high impact IISs, HKU-CTC has recently launched PRACTISE^® IIS – a training programme addressing the specific considerations for IISs.

The first course was completed by way of an online seminar on 28th August, 2020. Professor Ian Wong, Head of Department of Pharmacology and Pharmacy, and Dr. Helen Zhi, Director of Biostatistics and Clinical Research Methodology Unit, shared their practical tips and experience in designing and managing big data research and clinical studies with over 300 participants and received enthusiastic response. CTC will continue to organize other courses on IISs.

HKU-CTC is launching a Public Education Series explaining the process and particular of clinical trials by simple language and illustrations. The first chapter named “The Journey of Drug Development” was posted on HKU-CTC Facebook page on June 1, 2020.

(Available in Chinese only)

To help identify possible treatments for tackling COVID-19, The University of Hong Kong Clinical Trials Centre join forces with Queen Mary Hospital, Prince of Wales Hospital, Princess Margaret Hospital and the manufacturer of remdesivir, an investigational antiviral drug, in arranging for two clinical trials targeting for the treatment of moderate to severe COVID-19 patients. With a common goal of accelerating the preparation for the trials, the parties have been working hard in the past few weeks and quickly obtained the approvals from the research ethics committees. It is anticipated that the trials will be initiated within this month (i.e. March 2020).

HKU-CTC set up a Chinese New Year Booth at Queen Mary Hospital on 21st January, 2020, to celebrate Chinese New Year with the supporters. Dr. Hong, one of the CTC Panda Ambassadors, visited the booth on that day. He gave out calendar cards and fai-chuns to the visitors. Visitors who participated in the quiz game at the booth and answered all questions correctly were given specially designed red packets as well. The responses were enthusiastic. Here are some highlights of the event:

Novel coronavirus emerges in Hong Kong recently. Dr. Hong, Panda Ambassador of HKU Clinical Trials Centre, also wears a face mask to protect himself from viruses!

He wants to take this chance to remind you all to stay healthy and maintain personal hygiene to stop the spread of virus and avoid being infected. Dr. Hong is introducing you some useful tips:-

The investigational drug of this study is EXPAREL^®, a local anesthetic, which was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2011 on postsurgical pain relief. HKU-CTC was delegated to perform this study to evaluate the metabolic and safety profiles of this drug in Chinese population.

Recruitment of this study started in October 2019, and 20 healthy volunteers were recruited. The duration of this clinical study was around 54 days, including screening, 6-night confinement, ambulatory visits and a follow up phone call. During the study period, volunteers received one dose of the investigational drug via subcutaneous injection at multiple points. Due to the long staying period, HKU-CTC organized 3 workshops for the healthy volunteers, including Turkish Mosaic Lamp Workshop, Little Paper Art Night Lamp Workshop and Art of Paper Tearing Workshop. The project was completed in January 2020.