Site Networks Find Strength In Numbers With AMRC

By Dan Schell, Chief Editor, Clinical Leader

When you’re attending SCOPE next week, don't be surprised if you start hearing the acronyms AMRC and MCRC being uttered in conversations. That’s because late last week, the Association of Multisite Research Corporations (AMRC) was officially launched with 14 multisite clinical research corporations (MCRCs) members.

Jim Kremidas, long-time Clinical Leader editorial board member and now AMRC executive director, says since the trade association is so new, it won’t have a large presence at SCOPE. “A lot of our members were planning to be there anyway, so we're going to have board and membership meetings while everyone is in town. You'll also probably see our promotional materials at some members’ booths, but we're not going to have a large presence.”

Here are a few key facts about the AMRC:

• Members must have at least five sites in their network
• Clinical research must be a member’s primary business
• It is a paid membership
• The following 14 founding organizations have a global footprint of more than 370 research sites and nearly 900 PIs
  • Alcanza Clinical Research
  • Alliance for Multispecialty Research (AMR)
  • CenExel
  • Centricity Research
  • DM Clinical Research
  • Evolution Research Group (ERG)
  • Flourish Research
  • Headlands Research
  • Helios Clinical Research
  • IMA Clinical Research
  • Javara
  • Paradigm Clinical Research
  • Tekton Research
  • Velocity Clinical Research

The association evolved out of informal conversations (at various industry conferences) that some members were having with each other about their common challenges. Once they decided to band together to form the association, Kremidas was asked to become the executive director. A board was formed, and they started working on their mission and vision statements. They filed the business in the state of Delaware as a not-for-profit 501(c)(6) and then filed for tax-exempt status. “All of that occurred in the last four or five months, so it's been a whirlwind,” Kremidas says.

WHAT CONSTITUTES A SITE NETWORK?

We all know that site networks, in general, are currently the darlings of the industry. They are growing in importance and popularity, and are frequently the target of many PE firms. But as Kremidas reminds me, the term “site network” is ambiguous. For example, it could mean a loosely affiliated group of sites that work together to bid on projects. Or, maybe it’s a group of academic sites all working on oncology studies together.

For AMRC, the differentiator is that each member is a corporation, and its sites are all owned by that company. “These aren’t strategic alliances,” Kremidas explains. “These are ownership situations, which of course lead to more consistent SOPs, contracting, and operational efficiencies.”  

The press release announcing AMRC touted similar benefits:

AMRC’s mission is to promote the unique benefits of MCRCs, including scalability, consistency through centralized operations, robust data integrity, and enhanced support for PIs. By streamlining processes for sponsors, CROs, and improving data collection for regulators, AMRC aims to address inefficiencies in the traditional site model, which has been plagued by delays, inconsistent quality, and investigator burnout.

Kremidas is quick to note that AMRC is not suggesting sponsors only work with MCRCs; individual sites still hold plenty of value, and a mixed approach likely will provide the best combination of time and cost savings along with patient recruitment optimization.

NEXT STEPS

These being the early days of this association, there are a lot of initiatives and tasks that are still in flux. All of which means AMRC is dominating Kremidas’ time. However, he is getting help from consultants in areas such as finance, communications, marketing, and legal, which will continue until the current virtual company lands some additional members and funding for infrastructure.

In the next year, he plans to have discussions with regulatory personnel to determine what they would consider “best practices” for MCRCs and then develop a plan to implement those across their membership. He’s also working on gathering data that shows things like site startup timelines or data query responses for an MCRC compared to a traditional model. Essentially, they are seeking metrics that demonstrate the operational advantages/efficiencies of working with MCRCs. In fact, that’s one of the topics Kremidas will discuss at their board meeting during SCOPE.

“Right now, we're not actively pursuing new members, but we strongly suspect companies are going to be contacting us to see if they qualify. And then, of course, we'll have to determine our rate of growth. You know how it is when you're starting up any type of business; you want to get your feet on the ground, get some good projects underway, establish yourself in the marketplace. I’m sure once we are more established, we will consider adding more members.”