1st Int’l P.R. Clinical Research Summit draws 200+ attendees
PRCCI Executive Director Kosmas Kretsos and PRCCI Chair Lester Martinez took part in the summit.
The Puerto Rico Clinical Research Summit 2018, held in San Juan for the first time, successfully gathered more than 200 key stakeholders, including patients, representatives of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and Yale University among others.
The summit featured more than 20 speakers from Puerto Rico, U.S. mainland and Latin America, all recognized experts in the field of clinical research, organizers said.
Kosmas Kretsos, executive director of the Puerto Rico Consortium for Clinical Investigation (PRCCI) — founded by the Puerto Rico Science, Technology and Research Trust — offered a rundown of the organization’s achievements in the last two years, focusing on members of the island’s 26 clinical research centers.
“Our first-class research centers are our main assets that are investing in this initiative (PRCCI) to help develop important treatments for patients on the island and to obtain sustainable benefits by creating jobs and by promoting Puerto Rico’s economy,” Kretsos said.
“This summit will give us the opportunity to exponentiate the message that in Puerto Rico we are more than prepared and capable to carry out clinical trials and grow the field further,” said Kretsos.
The audience also included academic and private researchers, pharmaceutical companies, and Contract Research Organizations.
In the past decade, clinical research activity has doubled worldwide. In Puerto Rico, it is estimated that nearly 800 clinical trials have been conducted, of which more than 400,000 patients with different conditions have been involved in the research process.
Puerto Rico is a unique destination for clinical studies for several factors: its strategic location between North America and South America, a regulatory environment that contributes to the credibility and validity of studies and the talent and skills of highly qualified physicians and clinical research professionals, among others, the PRCCI stated.
“One of the fundamental pillars at the Trust is to promote research and collaborate in opening opportunities for the scientific community, which contributes to the economic development of Puerto Rico,” Science Trust CEO Lucy Crespo said.
“We are very satisfied with the work that our PRCCI program is doing and this event will show that by joining all sectors we can achieve more,” she noted.
