New clinical trials lab opens for business

Melbourne clinical trials group Cancer Trials Australia (CTA) opened a new state-of-the-art laboratory on Wednesday, to complement other clinical trials services offered by the group.

The AUD$900,000 Cancer Trials Australia Laboratory will perform a range of assays for clinical trials, in particular focusing on translational studies including RT-PCR and other molecular assays, as well as immunoassays.

The new lab is part of $4 million worth of upgrades at CTA, with funding coming from the $8 million STII grant awarded to Clinical Trials Victoria (CTV) by the Victorian state government last year.

CTA is a founding member of CTV, which has been set up to provide similar services to CTA, but for a wider range of clinical trials. CTA Laboratory services will also be available to CTV.

Other CTA projects funded by the CTV grant include enhancements to the PET scanner facilities at Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre and Austin Health, and a bioinformatics program to collect cancer patient data.

"We want to make Victoria the location of choice for cancer trials in the region," said CTA CEO Dr Mark Rosenthal.

In the last 10 years, he said, CTA (formerly known as the Centre for Development of Cancer Therapeutics) had conducted almost 1000 clinical trials, involving around 60 Australian and international companies.

Victorian Minister for Innovation John Brumby, who opened the new facility, said clinical trials offered substantial business and economic opportunities in addition to their role in improving health outcomes.