Celerion expands ophthalmological capabilities to patient populations in collaboration with Queen’s University, Belfast

Celerion announces the expansion of ophthalmological services in our Belfast, Northern Ireland UK facility, by building on our successful relationship with Queen’s University in Belfast. Celerion will expand our collaboration with Queen’s University for access to patient populations, specialized procedures and their scientific expertise in this area.

This new focus will enable Celerion to apply expertise acquired from several years of performing precise ophthalmologic measurements as part of assessing the safety of new drug candidates. By moving beyond clinical safety assessment, Celerion scientists and colleagues at The Centre for Experimental Medicine at Queen’s University can perform assessments of drug effect in a controlled research environment. The focus will be on patients with eye diseases such as diabetic retinopathy, age-related macular degeneration, glaucoma, and retinal vein occlusions.

“We are very pleased with the expansion of ophthalmological capabilities to patient populations, which has been driven by client and market demand,” said Phil Bach, Vice President of Global Clinical Research at Celerion. “Celerion’s collaboration with Queen’s University in the area of respiratory studies has proven to be very successful. The group in Belfast, led by Professor Alan Stitt, has an international reputation in ophthalmology. Our expansion into the area of patient populations with important sight-threatening conditions represents an extension of this productive research collaboration. This is another example of how Celerion works to provide ways for our clients to move more rapidly to critical go/no-go decisions in drug development.”

“At Queen’s we are engaged in world-class research with the goal of understanding the causes of disease and improving outcomes for patients,” said Professor Alan Stitt, McCauley Chair of Experimental Ophthalmology and Director of the Centre for Experimental Medicine at Queen’s University. “The capability to perform well-designed early phase clinical studies is a key step in translating research from bench to bedside. Our collaboration with Celerion, a leader in early clinical research, represents an exciting opportunity to develop new therapies for patient benefit.”

Celerion’s facility in Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK also has extensive early stage clinical capabilities based on First-In-Human experience with both NCEs and biologics, as well as bioequivalence, biosimilars, obesity,  gastro-intestinal and respiratory studies.