Center seeks trial participants
Pennington Biomedical Research Center has an opportunity to be part of an international study of a cutting-edge heart medication — if it can find the volunteer participants it needs.
The new trial, called REVEAL, is studying a drug’s effect on cholesterol and has a deadline of Feb. 29 to have a minimum of 50 participants pre-identified for the trial.
In mid-February, Pennington was more than halfway to its goal, with 29 volunteers in the study.
The lead time for this particular study, funded by Merck and involving thousands of adult volunteers around the world, was a bit shorter than other studies sometimes are, said Dr. Tim Church, the study’s co-principal investigator at Pennington.
Church said that the REVEAL clinical trial investigating a treatment for heart disease is a new area for Pennington.
The Pennington research center always has a good response for its calls for volunteers for studies in two of its longtime areas of research, obesity and diabetes, which Church is involved in, he said.
“We do really well (recruiting) when we talk about weight loss and really well when we talk about diabetes,” said Church, who is also director of the Preventive Medicine Laboratory at Pennington.
Pennington puts out the word on recruitment of volunteers for trials through the media, through advertising and on its electronic billboard at its location on Perkins Road.
It also has a database of approximately 15,000 people to email, who have previously expressed interest in clinical trials, Church said.
But, he said, “I’m not sure we’ve been reaching those people” affected by heart disease, through previous contacts.
“We have the potential to lose the (REVEAL trial) site. I’m confident we won’t, but we’re not used to being in this position,” Church said on Feb. 14, of the continued search for volunteers leading up to a deadline.
The international REVEAL study is coordinated by the Clinical Trial Service Unit of Oxford University in Oxfordshire, England, and will involve more than 30,000 men and women who have some form of circulatory disease.
Participating research centers are located in North America, the United Kingdom, China, Germany, Italy and Scandinavia, according to an Oxford University website.
REVEAL stands for “Randomized Evaluation of the Effects of Anacetrapib through Lipid-modification.”
It will study whether the drug anacetrapib can increase good cholesterol and lower bad cholesterol to reduce the risk of heart attack, stroke or other heart complications, according to a Pennington news release.
“These types of trials change the way medicine is practiced,” Church said.
The trial brings hundreds of thousands of research dollars to the centers involved, he said.
The REVEAL study design includes one pre-screening visit and a screening visit, as well as clinic visits throughout the study, which will follow volunteers for three to five years, Church said.
Participants will receive free cholesterol medication and up to $390 for their participation, according to Pennington.
Researchers are looking for participants who are 50 or older and have ever had a heart attack or stroke; been treated for peripheral artery disease or have had carotid veins cleared; or who have diabetes and have been hospitalized for angina, bypass surgery, angioplasty or stents, according to Pennington’s website, http://www.pbrc.edu/clinical-trials.
For more information on volunteering for REVEAL, call (225) 763-3000 or email clinicaltrials@pbrc.edu.