C-TRIC’S commercial manager Barry Johnston looking forward to trip to US
DERRY-based C-TRIC is one of 15 companies who will be showcasing the north west’s entrepreneurship and innovation when they travel to Boston in mid-November as part of a joint collaboration between Councils in Derry & Strabane and Donegal.
The trip is part of the region’s strategy to promote inward investment and provide local businesses access to potential export opportunity.
C-TRIC (Clinical Translational Research and Innovation Centre), which is based in the grounds of Altnagelvin Area Hospital, streamlines the process of taking developments from the laboratory to the marketplace.
It facilitates partnerships between academic researchers, clinical practitioners and industry. In doing so the company has significant commercial potential – by reducing both time and costs associated with research and development of innovative health technologies, medical devices and therapeutics.
C-TRIC has earned a worldwide reputation for academic-led clinical research in areas such as diabetes, kidney disease, cardiovascular disease, nutrition and biomarkers (which indicate the presence of disease).
The company’s commercial manager Barry Johnston said: “C-TRIC is situated on a major acute hospital site which allows for co-localisation of clinicians, academics and industry experts. This makes the centre an ideal location for staging clinical research and trials.
“What we do is to create a pathway where ideas are generated in tandem by academics and clinicians, then developed through to their final commercial application in collaboration with industry.
“This way the time to market, as well as the costs of research and development, is significantly reduced.
“We therefore hope that as a result of participating in the Boston trade mission from November 14-17, we will develop strong collaborative working relationships with other life and health science companies in the area – which will ultimately lead to future studies.
“Our long-term plan is to create a project pipeline from companies in this region and increase the size and scope of our clinical research capabilities.”
Mayor of Derry City and Strabane District Council, Cllr Maolíosa McHugh and Donegal County Council Cathaoirleach Cllr Gerry McMonagle will lead the delegation along with council chief executives John Kelpie and Seamus Neely.
Among the other companies from the Derry City & Strabane District Council area are AE Global (formerly Allpipe Engineering), ActionSense Ltd, Makematic, NeuroConcise, O’Neill’s Irish International Sport, Troll Inc and Type 40 Creative.
