Barcelona's Vall d’Hebron Research Institute (VHIR) enlarges its space for clinical trials

Barcelona (ACN).- On Monday, the Vall d’Hebron Research Institute (VHIR) unveiled a new 625-square-metre space for clinical trials. The new facilities will host the Academic Research Organisation (ARO), which will provide support to clinical trials developed throughout the world regarding quality control, methodological, regulatory, statistical and management aspects. The new space is located in Barcelona’s Vall d’Hebron Paediatrics Hospital and occupies its 13^th floor. It has 7 medical boxes, nursery support and a lab to process the samples, which will provide an integral service for clinical trials. The new facilities will be able to host between 750 and 1,100 patients per year and develop 350 trials. It cost €1.2 million, which came from public funds. This space will strengthen the VHIR, which is one of the leading biomedical research centres in Europe. In fact, over the last few years, Greater Barcelona has become a reference centre for biomedical research at international level.

With the new space, clinical research projects will be developed in a more centralised way. Tasks which were previously undertaken in several locations of the Vall d’Hebron University Hospital (HUVH) will now take place in a single space. This way, researchers will save time and effort.

The Scientific Director of the HUVH, Joan Comella, explained that the new facilities will allow the clinical research protocols to be managed in a more agile, reliable and efficient way, since researchers will have the space for outpatient consultations and be able to pay more attention to patients. Furthermore, the HUVH Head of the Diabetes and Metabolism Group, Rafael Simó, stated that the new facilities will allow the hospital to be “more competitive and attract more economic and scientific sources, both at national and international level”.

The project to build this new research space started in 2009 and construction work began in late 2011. The FEDER Funds of the Health Institute Carlos III brought in €930,000 to build the facilities. On top of this, the Spanish Health Ministry donated €218,500 and the Council of the Consortium to Support Biomedical Research Networks (CAIBER) brought in €85,000.