With the rising costs of research and the desire to help get drugs to market faster, CROs must maximize efficiency and minimize costs, while meeting global regulatory requirements. This includes optimizing study protocols, identifying appropriate study endpoints, and effectively managing resources. Finding the right candidates to ensure early-phase drug development study data accuracy, integrity, and security is crucial as well. Balancing cost control with the need for accurate and reliable data, experienced personnel, and state-of-the-art infrastructure can be a significant challenge. An organization that supports all early drug development phases, from lead candidate selection to clinical proof of concept along with regulatory guidance,  is Altasciences. In a nutshell, Altasciences is a mid-size contract research organization (CRO) and contract drug manufacturing organization (CDMO) offering pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies a proven, flexible approach to nonclinical and clinical pharmacology studies, including bioanalysis, formulation, manufacturing, and analytical services.

Focused on the early stages of drug development, Altasciences offers an integrated solution to help sponsors seamlessly reach critical decision-making milestones sooner, from lead candidate selection to clinical proof of concept, and beyond.

“What makes Altasciences stand out from their competition is the way they work as a partner rather than a solution provider to their clientele, which is powered by our unique and integrated approach called Proactive Drug Development,” begins Chris Perkin, CEO, Altasciences.  

With Proactive Drug Development, Altasciences assists with clear, customized roadmaps, supported by real-time data generation, a proprietary communication platform (Ask Albert), and central program management and scheduling to help get to clinical proof of concept, faster. Sponsors can partner with Altasciences for one service, an end-to-end program, or something in between with complete flexibility. Another benefit of this approach is the ability to parallel process certain activities (even in different phases) to accelerate drug development without compromising safety. For example, the ability to make quick and informed dosing decisions in active clinical trials based on in-house and timed bioanalytical and safety data. “We can reduce the time taken from your first study in preclinical to dosing, by up to 40%. We enable this by eliminating silos and communication gaps, while also reducing handovers. With all development stages and departments at Altasciences’ team across department, sites, and research phases, move in unison, with harmonized tools, centralized scheduling, Ask Albert, and global financial and quality assurance oversight, as well as dedicated project and program managers,” says Chris.

For more than 25 years, Altasciences has been partnering with drug sponsors to help support educated, faster, and more complete early drug development decisions. When asked more about this, Chris recalls a specific case in which the team assisted a client with a Phase I clinical trial with healthy normal volunteers During which the team identified unexpected side effects in a small number of patients and immediately communicated with the client. Altasciences’ team accelerated all of the data and blood sample analysis and was able to identify a certain subpopulation that reacted differently than expected to the drug being administered. The team was able to reject what they were doing and use their robust participant database to recruit additional subjects. All of these processes were performed in record time to identify the potential issues that could have resulted in unexpected side effects.

Since opening its doors, Altasciences has been a pioneer in delivering outstanding solutions s to sponsors worldwide, evolving from a clinical research organization to an integrated, full-service CRO and CDMO for early phase drug development A true one-stop solution. “Our ultimate goal is not to be the biggest CRO. Although we will continue to grow to continuously meet and exceed client expectations for their ever-evolving complex study needs. We are the CRO and CDMO of choice for sponsors looking for an integrated, efficient, customized approach to early-stage development,” concludes Chris.