Quebec’s CATALIS aims to boost province as preferred site of early-stage clinical trials

The Quebec Ministry of Health and Social Services (QMHSS) and four pharmaceutical firms are investing $6.2 million into Montreal InVivo’s Early Stage Clinical Trial (ESCT) initiative which has been renamed CATALIS. The initiative will position itself as a promoter for boosting early-stage clinical trials in the province while serving as a coordinating centre through which projects launched by pharmaceutical firms can be assigned to university hospital centres. ESCT was established to facilitate patient recruiting, raise awareness among different population groups, promote the Montreal region’s assets and improve operational effectiveness of participating institutions. To expand CATALIS province-wide, QMHSS is contributing $5.3 million while the four pharmaceutical firms — AbbVie Canada (spun off from Abbott Laboratories), GlaxoSmithKline Inc, Pfizer Canada Inc and Servier Canada — are providing a total of $900,000. CATALIS expects to double the number of subjects as well as the funding for early-stage clinical trials within five years by establishing the province as an innovation hub and allowing investigators to move upstream in the field of global clinical research.