Texas Clinical Trials Help Patients, Boost State’s Economy
Guest blogger: Tom Kowalski
February 11, 2014
Texas has emerged in recent years as one of the nation’s top clinical trial research centers, to the benefit of both patients and the state’s economy.
New data show biopharmaceutical research companies alone have conducted nearly 9,200 clinical trials of new medicines in the state since 1999, with more than half targeting heart disease, stroke, cancer, diabetes and other debilitating chronic conditions. More than 900 of the chronic disease trials are active and recruiting patients, giving some an alternative treatment option to discuss with their doctors and local clinicians.
New and more effective treatments are still needed at a time when heart disease and stroke are the number one and three causes of death in Texas, and the state ranks ninth in the nation for diabetes with diabetics accounting for nearly 10 percent of the population. Last year, about 100,000 new cancer cases were diagnosed, according to the American Cancer Society, and one out of 12 Texans suffers from asthma.
Clinical trials of potential new medications have provided an economic boost to Texas’ university medical schools and science centers, hospitals and specialty treatment facilities, which collaborate with biopharmaceutical companies in testing medications. In 2011, the year with the most recent data, biopharmaceutical companies supported more than 134,000 jobs in the state, including local clinicians conducting clinical trials. Clinical research accounts for 45 to 75 percent of the average $1.2 billion cost of developing a new medicine.
Dozens of the state’s research institutions have helped companies conduct clinical trials in about 15 Texas communities, including Houston, Dallas, Austin, Fort Worth, Corpus Christi, El Paso, Waco, Victoria and New Braunfels.
The facilities involved in this research include:
- Charles A. Sammon Cancer Center at Baylor University, Dallas.
- M.D. Anderson Cancer Center at the University of Texas, Houston.
- University of Texas Health Science Center Institute for Drug Development, San Antonio.
- Texas Tech University Health Science Center, El Paso.
- Central Texas Health Research, New Braunfels.
- Hillcrest Family Health Center, Waco.
- Heart Hospital of Austin, Austin.
- Southwest Allergy and Asthma Research Center, San Antonio.
- Dallas Presbyterian Hospital, Dallas.
- Padre Coast Medical Associates, Corpus Christi.
- Scott & White Memorial Hospital, Temple.
- Methodist DeBakey Heart and Vascular Center at Methodist Hospital, Houston.
To learn more about clinical trials in Texas, visit http://www.clinicaltrials.gov, the clinical trials data base of the National Institutes of Health.
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About the Author
Thomas R. Kowalski is Co-Chair of We Work for Health Texas and President and CEO of the Texas Healthcare and Bioscience Institute (THBI) in Austin, Texas.
Texas Healthcare and Biosciences Institute and CTD have a reciprocal membership and collaborate on issues on access to medicines.
