About us

Patient access to investigational drugs

Nordic-NECT

Collaboration

Objectives

Members

Chair

Meetings

Finances

Chair 2011

Patient access to investigational drugs

Today, many seriously ill cancer patients do not have satisfactory standard treatment options. A great part of these patients wish to be enrolled in clinical phase I and early phase II trials to gain access to new investigational therapies. In the Nordic countries, however, the number of these trials are limited. It is important to ensure the access to new investigational therapies. Patient recruitment is critical to the drug development program and pharmaceutical companies often choose tertiary oncologic centres with larger patient populations for initiating such trials.

Nordic NECT

The network is designed to ensure patient access to new investigational drugs and to allow customer information and easy access to phase I and early phase II programs in the Nordic countries.

Collaboration

The network was founded in March 2011 and is based on a collaboration between Clinical Cancer Research Unit, Department of Oncology, Oslo University Hospital, Norway; The Phase I Unit, Department of Oncology, Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen, Denmark; Center for Cancer Research, Department of Oncology, Herlev Hospital, Copenhagen, Denmark; Clinical Trial Unit, Department of Oncology, Helsinki University Central Hospital, Helsinki, Finland; Early Clinical Trial Unit, Department of Oncology, Karolinska University Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden.

The departments included have all been involved in drug development for more than 25 years. Thus, all departments have considerable experience and reputation for scientific and medical expertise.

Objectives

• To establish and develop a network to perform state-of-art phase I and early phase II trials in oncology to ensure the patients access to new investigational therapies.
• To establish a WEB site with information about the network, the departments and ongoing trials.
• To work for a bilateral agreement between the Nordic countries allowing for inclusion of patients in early clinical trial protocols across the borders.
• To promote “One point of entry” for early clinical trials and common approval for the Nordic countries.

The collaboration addresses the following:

• Standard phase I (-II) studies
• First-in-man through proof of concept programs
• Other complex studies requiring scientific expertise

Members

Each department should have a representative from the phase I units, a representative from the Clinical Research Units (or equivalent) and a representative for the research nurses. Other relevant persons will be invited ad hoc.

Chair

The chairman and secretary are selected for one year.
Responsibilities of chairman: Call for meeting including agenda.
Responsibility of secretary: minutes from the meetings, news on the WEB.

Meetings

Twice yearly. The organizer of the meetings is responsible for all practical issues.

Finances

Each member covers their own travel expenses.
Nordic NECT web-site supported by the Norwegian Cancer Society

Chair 2011-2012

Steinar Aamdal, Professor, MD, PhD
Section for Clinical Cancer Research
Oslo University Hospital
N-0310 Oslo, Norway
phone:+47 22 93 40 00
email: steinar.aamdal@medisin.uio.no

Secretary
Paal Fr. Brunsvig

WEB master
Turid Kolbjørnsgard