In the early months of the pandemic, human challenge clinical trials drew amplified public interest on its potential to accelerate the hunt for Covid-19 vaccines. Fast forward two years later, while mainstream media buzz around this trial design has somewhat tempered, this does not seem to be the case in the clinical trials sector, at least according to one service provider.
“There’s been unprecedented demand for human challenge trials recently,” says Open Orphan chief scientific officer Andrew Catchpole. “We are fully booked for the next 12 months. We added 19 extra beds to our pre-existing 24 last year and are considering adding an extra seven in the coming year.”
Open Orphan (LON:ORPH) was founded in 2017, with the goal of rapidly building Europe’s leading pharma services company by a management team with extensive industry and financial expertise. The company comprises of two commercial specialist CRO services businesses (Venn Life Sciences and hVIVO) and is also developing a genomics data platform business (Genomic Health Data).