Established more than a decade ago as a think tank for global enrollment strategies, the BBK Worldwide Patient Recruitment Global Alliance has grown to represent more than 50 companies around the world. These companies work in collaboration to support clinical trial recruitment and retention. Alliance founder BBK now has announced the creation of regional hub leaders to further enhance its ability to evaluate and train international consulting companies in the marketing discipline of patient recruitment, a necessary step to ensure culturally relevant and seamlessly integrated global offerings.

According to BBK, the alliance represents a deliberate shift from industry merger and acquisition trends. Members, under the guidance of their hub leader, rely on their autonomous position to ensure sponsors receive the most unbiased and informed regional recommendations.

“BBK’s mutually beneficial and exclusive relationships with these best-in-class, independent companies bring new meaning to ‘feet on the street,’” said Bonnie A. Brescia, founding principal, BBK Worldwide.

The regional hub leaders are:

• QuoMedic, a newly formed company derived from medical information technology expert MEDEORA, is based in Cologne, Germany. QuoMedic provides a physician database deployed for clinical trial feasibility and physician referral initiatives. Created by medical professionals and scientists, it also manages and quality controls the cultural adaptation and media planning work of alliance members throughout Western and Eastern Europe. According to QuoMedic managing director Norbert Schmeisser, M.D., “Both the volume of work and complexity of the tasks we were assigned by BBK made an expansion of our capabilities a strategic necessity. It became quite clear that we needed to establish a separate entity to focus on recruitment.”
• CROèe, a contract management organization and healthcare marketing company, is based in Tokyo. In Japan, CROèe supervises the activities of BBK Osaka, providing not only a robust database of patients in more than 100 disease categories, but also a call center and web services respected by clinical sites throughout the region.
• Southern Star Research, a privately owned Australian CRO in greater Sydney, Australia, provides the alliance with an expanded perspective on the intricacies of site management, while the alliance provides Southern Star’s CRAs and project managers with the most comprehensive view of site recruitment initiatives. “In essence, through our work with the BBK Alliance, our CRAs see recruitment as a critical component of their job responsibilities, not an afterthought,” said David Lloyd, Ph.D., managing director of Southern Star Research.
• Jsure Health, a dedicated patient recruitment company in Shanghai and Beijing, has created processes and procedures for web outreach tactics that comply with ethics committee standards, while also affording maximum use of online strategies. The company’s contribution to the alliance has increased significantly based in large measure on the fact that the Chinese pharmaceutical industry has grown approximately 22% annually.

These long-standing alliance members, chosen for hub leadership, also focus their efforts on bringing increased public understanding of clinical research to the international landscape. In the coming months, the alliance will launch a series of research initiatives that will support the development of geo-optimized tactics to maximize return-on-investment for sponsors.

Comprised of vetted, trained and experienced clinical trial communications and technology companies, the Patient Recruitment Global Alliance provides clinical research professionals with recruitment and retention solutions for complex multinational enrollment. Founded by BBK Worldwide, the alliance includes partner companies as well as member firms offering functional-specific or country-specific resources.