Panthera and Rutherford Health launch innovative oncology clinical trial network

Panthera and Rutherford Health plc have entered a collaboration to create a network of world-class clinical trial sites for the development of new cancer treatments. The collaboration, called Panthera@theRutherford, combines Panthera’s expertise in managing and running clinical trials with Rutherford’s UK network of advanced centres and team of leading oncologists.

Rutherford’s independent network currently consists of four cancer treatment centres in Newport, Reading, Bedlington and Liverpool and will draw patients from all over the UK offering Pharma and CROs access to patients through more than 170 referring oncologists.

Each of the Rutherford Cancer Centres has state-of-the-art diagnostics including MRI, CT, and proton beam therapy as well as offering chemotherapy, Immunotherapy and radiotherapy treatments. These facilities combined with leading oncologists, Panthera’s clinical trial professionals and an experienced cancer care team ensure that patients will receive the highest possible standard of care.

Mike Moran, CEO Rutherford Health PLC commented “We are delighted to partner with Panthera to provide professional cancer research in our centres. By collaborating with Panthera and our team of oncologists, we will be at the forefront of research into innovative therapies and we’ll be able offer more opportunities to patients and access to life-saving treatments.”

“This really is a breakthrough partnership. Over 30% of all global clinical trials planned for 2020 are cancer trials; bringing research and cancer care together in one place will provide pharma and CROs the opportunity to undertake clinical trials with unrivalled access to more than 40 types of cancer and have access to millions of potential patients when there is a great shortage of top class sites” commented Dr Ian Smith, Chief Medical Officer of Panthera who was formerly founder of Synexus.

Ian, with co-founder Prof. John Lyon, previously a senior executive with Covance, launched Panthera in 2018 and have quickly assembled one of the most experienced teams of clinical trial specialists in the industry. Panthera is already talking to pharma and CROs who have shown great interest in and hopes to have the first trials in place in the next few months. As trial complexity increases, Panthera@theRutherford sites will enable larger patient commitments to drastically improve the cost-effectiveness and speed of running cancer trials in the UK.