Contract Research Organizations (CROs) conduct clinical trials on behalf of biopharmaceutical companies, providing scientific, medical, and operational expertise throughout the process. By outsourcing clinical research activities to CROs, sponsor companies are able to allocate internal resources to other critical areas, such as engaging with healthcare providers, research and development activities, and product marketing. By leveraging the services of CROs, sponsors have the opportunity to streamline their research operations, enhance efficiency, and ultimately improve patient outcomes. However, various factors over the past few years have led to a significant downturn in what could be expected from a service provider, resulting in an unfortunate status quo for the clinical trial landscape.

This is where Dr. Vince Clinical Research (DVCR) is creating a difference—by producing high quality clinical trial data while achieving rapid timelines, within a framework of improved customer service. When the company was formed in 2021, the team examined the landscape for early phase studies and wanted to provide a better solution.

DVCR was founded with the goal of being one of the top early-phase full-service CROs in the United States. The company specializes in conducting clinical trials in both healthy normal volunteers and special populations across a wide variety of early phase study designs. DVCR’s support services include project management, data management, biostatistics, monitoring, medical writing as well as external site feasibility and management. By leveraging both technology and one of the country’s most experienced early clinical development leadership teams, DVCR provides Smarter, Faster Data™ to their biopharmaceutical clients.

DVCR’s Four Founding Pillars of Excellence

DVCR was founded upon four pillars which Dr. Brad Vince, the company’s CEO & Medical Director, felt would challenge the status quo and push his team towards excellence: a luxurious phase I-unit, technology and innovation, environmental sustainability, and most importantly, investing in people.

The company’s headquarters is comprised of a three-building research complex in Overland Park, Kansas. This includes a 90-bed clinical pharmacology unit featuring a cGMP pharmacy, moderate-complexity sample processing laboratory, and luxurious amenities to support participant recruitment and retention.

“We built the most luxurious and innovative clinical pharmacology unit for Phase 1 trials in the world bar none. We did this to elevate the experience of our clinical research participants from the very first moment they enter the facility and throughout their entire stay,” says Vince. This focus on the study participants’ experience has resulted in excellent metrics across the company’s clinical programs completed to date, with 100% of studies being recruited on time.

Utilizing industry-leading technology platforms is crucial to achieving faster and more accurate results. The team felt that in order to deliver better-than-expected data to clients, there needed to be a significant investment in technology that would enable clinical trials to be conducted more efficiently. At the clinical pharmacology unit, DVCR leverages a cloud-based eSource/EDC and clinic workflow automation system integrated with equipment, which enables DVCR to automatically upload data and make it available to clients in real-time. Instead of paper regulatory documents, the company uses a 21 CFR Part 11 compliant electronic Investigator Site File which provides long-term records retention, stores all central site documents, and is electronic signature enabled, among many other features.

DVCR is led by one of the most experienced early clinical development teams in the country, with its members averaging over 10 years of clinical research experience. “We built a company culture to recruit and retain some of the top talent in the industry. This allows us to have very high employee retention rates as we constantly hear from our sponsors that other CROs have high turnover rates during their clinical programs. It is important that our sponsors start and end with the same Project Manager, as other CROs do not make this a priority,” explains Vince.

The company made significant investments to ensure its facility and organization met sustainability and wellness standards, including solar panels, free car charging stations, demand-controlled ventilation, and water conservation strategies. “We felt that clinical research companies could do better in terms of their carbon footprint, so we did everything we could to reduce ours and run our organization with a mind towards sustainability. As a result of our sustainability initiatives, we have recently received two Green Globes certifications for our headquarters’ building,” adds Vince.

Growth for Early Phase Trial Services

 Now that the company has conducted a significant number of studies since opening the doors of its state-of-the-art clinical pharmacology unit, DVCR is evaluating how it can offer more solutions to its current and future clients. This has required the company to look beyond the trial types that can be conducted specifically at its research complex and explore meaningful partnerships with external sites.

“Many of our key sponsors have requested that we start offering a multisite solution for early phase studies,” says Vince. “In order to make an impact in this space and execute these trials successfully, we have recently made a significant number of key hires and brought on board additional expertise. This will allow our organization to continue hands-on oversight of the studies that take place at our facility while methodically expanding our footprint.” While this model is not new to the industry, DVCR plans to challenge the status quo yet again by having better partnerships with these external sites, solidified through governance charters and transparent communication. “Furthermore, we are committed to prioritizing site operations through on-time payments and clear escalation pathways.” Vince adds, “By doing so, these external sites will prioritize the studies we are partnered on, in turn producing better data and meeting or exceeding timeline expectations for our sponsors.”