BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Circuit Clinical, a company working to make clinical trials more successful and easier for patients, has a new partnership with UB that will not only keep it in Buffalo, but help it to expand.
Clinical trials represent hope for many patients facing life-threatening illnesses, but don't always have the chance to make a difference.
"The challenge of bringing new medicines to market is that half the studies we do fail because they can't find the right number of patients for these studies, or the patients who enter become disheartened and drop out," said Dr. Irfan Khan, founder and Chief Medical Officer of Circuit Clinical, which works to make it easier for patients to participate by bringing the trial that's right for them to them.
"We're trying to transform that whole experience and make it clear that they're the most valuable person in the whole process when it comes to clinical research. We think the way to do that is to put the patient at ease at the office they know best with the doctors they trust best," said Khan.
After Circuit Clinical got started in 2014, it was heading to Denver, where Khan says the Life Sciences economy is about 10 years more mature than in Buffalo. The company then got involved with START-UP New York, and is now partnering with UB's Buffalo Institute for Genomics, which will invest $1.1 million into the company in the next five years. That will help Circuit Clinical create 104 new jobs in technology and health care.
"In order to basically create an economic engine where companies want to come to Western New York and invest in Western New York so that they can get their clinical studies done," said Khan.
He says they're trying to create the jobs that graduates of schools like UB will be looking for when they're deciding whether to stay in Buffalo.
"The innovation economy is so important to the lifeblood of our economy, and for too many years, I think this community lagged; but not anymore. Now, Western New York leads in start up businesses and they lead in the START-UP NY program across the state," said Howard Zemsky, president and CEO of Empire State Development.