Alder Hey children’s hospital and Proveca announce collaboration

Alder Hey children’s hospital and Proveca Ltd are joining forces with the aim of improving medicines for children and young people.

The new collaborative partnership plans to provide the best pharmaceutical treatments for children by identifying existing gaps and developing new products specifically for – and with – children and young people.

Dr Simon Bryson, CEO and founder of Proveca Ltd “We’re delighted and excited about our new collaboration with the team at Alder Hey. By bringing together the expertise in paediatric healthcare of Alder Hey with the paediatric pharmaceutical expertise of Proveca we aim to drive innovation in improving the lives of children with unmet medical needs.”

Dr Louise Bracken, Co-Director of Alder Hey’s Paediatric Medicines Research Unit said:  “This collaboration with Proveca builds on Alder Hey’s proud heritage in the development of safer, better medicines for children through its Paediatric Medicines Research Unit. We hope by teaming up with Proveca that we are able to identify key gaps in provision of medicines for children and bring new products to the national formulary which are tailored to the specific needs of children and young people.”

Historically, medicines were not developed specifically for children and young people. Many medicines are only available in dosage forms which are suitable for use in adults. For instance, small children are typically unable to swallow large tablets or capsules. Children are often given smaller or modified doses of adult medicines, by splitting tablets for instance, or by diluting liquid medicines. This not only means that accurate dosing can be difficult to achieve, but it also means that medicines designed for adults might not have been rigorously tested on children and young people.

This new collaboration between industry and one of the busiest children’s hospitals in Europe will call upon Alder Hey’s Paediatric Medicines Research and its NIHR funded Clinical Research Facility which is celebrating its 10-year anniversary. The agreement provides an amazing opportunity to understand the needs of patients and identify the areas of unmet need to ensure that children receive age-appropriate formulations and improve adherence.