FIVE “RESEARCH WARDS” FOR DRUGS AND DEVICES TRIAL WILL BE BUILT IN BEIJING THIS YEAR

  • 2019-10-29
 “Special ward” will be built in Beijing, where new drugs, medical devices, technologies and others will be developed and trialed towards clinical application, so as to better cure patients.
Today (October 28), Beijing Municipal Health Commission, Beijing Municipal Science & Technology Commission, Beijing Municipal Food and Drug Administration and other departments jointly release the Opinions on Strengthening the Construction of Research Wards in Beijing, and determine the construction of about five demonstration research wards before the end of next year. Such ward will be a “domestic leading and world-class” clinical site by 2022.
Research ward is more like a lab in the hospital, where healthcare professionals carry out clinical trial of drugs and medical devices, clinical application of new biomedical technologies and other clinical researches. This kind of ward is not only the important medical resource, but also essential scientific infrastructure.
According to the Opinions, the standardized construction of research wards will be launched in Beijing this year, and about five pilot demonstration research wards will be built. About twenty demonstration research wards will be built by 2020. Such ward will cover main disease fields, and develop to be a national leading and world-class clinical site with respect to infrastructure equipment, management & operation, project organization & implementation, and guarantee of support conditions, and play a leading role in the high-quality development of clinical research in Beijing.
Research ward may not be included into the average hospitalization day for payment calculation. The hospital that would construct research wards should ensure the sufficient beds. It is specified in the Opinions that it relies on hospital to sign a research ward construction agreement, and determine the scale of beds in the research ward: beds (including dental chair) are usually no less than 30, about 10% of current scheduled beds in the hospital. The hospital with actual beds reaching the scheduled beds can apply for about 10% of current beds as beds for research ward, while the hospital with actual beds not reaching the scheduled beds can increase beds by one third of the difference.  However, the increased beds are used for clinical research, instead of medical security. The operation of wards will be examined and appraised according to the promotion of scientific research project. In addition, due to uncertainty of clinical research, research ward may not be included into the average hospitalization day, bed turnover, bed utilization rate and others for payment calculation.
The emphasis on research ward is a strategic layout based on actual development of hygiene and health in Beijing. The medical services are closed related to the lives and health of patients. The medical development is inseparable from either science & technology, or the innovation of medical and health industry. Research ward can be a source and test field, where healthcare professionals can conduct innovative researches on new technologies, new methods, new drugs and new devices. It can also drive forward the medical innovation and progress. At present, Beijing is home to 115 tertiary hospitals, and gathers a huge amount of quality medical resources. At the same time, there is still great potential for the development of medical industry in Beijing. If a certain industry, accounting for about 15% of GDPGDP, can lead the health industry, the medical industry hasn’t reached this proportion in Beijing at present. This does neither match with rich medical resources in Beijing, nor give a full play to its advantages. Beijing marks a national sci-tech innovation center. The development of medical industry can enhance the diverse development in Beijing, which is also the starting point of new policy.
There are 50 and 63 institutions that have obtained clinical trial qualification of drugs and medical devices respectively in Beijing. Many trial facilities are distributed in medical institutions and conduct clinical trials accordingly. Limited beds can’t meet the research need and the development of medical enterprises. The new policy relaxes the increase in beds, and can mitigate this problem. Anther difficult faced by enterprises is that they can only cooperate with different hospitals during research and trial. The application text, ethical review time, and complex internal approval procedures of each hospital have an impact on the development of drugs. Therefore, municipal committee of experts on clinical research will be established, information construction and management standards worked out and uniform clinical research management and service platform built, so as to facilitate the transparency and symmetry of information as well as openness and sharing of resources; ethical review alliance and regional ethic committee will be established, and mutual recognition mechanism of ethic review results among hospitals and in regions set up gradually; subjects recruitment cooperative alliance will be formed, so as to improve the recruitment efficiency and quality of subjects for clinical research. Such measures will benefit medical enterprises.

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