Colombia's Minister of Health and Social Protection —Juan Pablo Uribe— and bioaccess™ Meet to Discuss Transforming Colombia into the Best Destination for Clinical Trials in Latin America
Friday, March 29, 2019 — From left to right, Monica Mora (VP of Operations, bioaccess.™), Julio G. Martinez-Clark (CEO, bioaccess.™), Juan Pablo Uribe (Colombia's Minister of Health and Social Protection), and Silvia Rodriguez (CEO, Caribbean Health Group) met at PROCOLOMBIA's office in Miami, FL to discuss how to boosts Barranquilla's capacity to attract more clinical research trial projects to the city through a collaboration between Caribbean Health Group and bioaccess.™
[ORLANDO, FL., March 22, 2019] — bioaccess.™ and Caribbean Health Group (CHG) —a cluster of the eight leading healthcare institution in Barranquilla, Colombia— have announced a collaboration to bring clinical research trials to the city with the objective of paving the way to make Barranquilla the most attractive destination for clinical research in Latin America. Under this collaboration, bioaccess.™ will assist CHG to increase the competitiveness and quality of the research infrastructure of its member institutions. This will translate in benefits to local patients who need faster and easier access to breakthrough medical innovations. The collaboration was announced on Friday, March 29, 2019 during a meeting in Miami, FL at PROCOLOMBIA's office in Miami, FL. Colombia's Minister of Health and Social Protection —Juan Pablo Uribe— attended this meeting and openly supported the initiative to bring more clinical research trial projects to Barranquilla and the rest of Colombia.
Clinical research has been conducted in Colombia for over 30 years, and the country has roughly 120 ICH/GCP-certified clinical research sites. According to the Pugatch Consilium consultancy, Colombia has the potential to export about USD $500 million annually in clinical research services. This is due to the country's strong healthcare infrastructure —according to the America Economía ranking, over 40% of the top hospitals in Latin America are located in Colombia—. In addition, Colombia is internationally recognized for the quality of the data that foreign clinical trial sponsors gather from the country's research sites.
bioaccess.™ and CHG are currently working with about 15 foreign medical device companies that are evaluating conducting their clinical research studies in Barranquilla. On March 15, 2019, EOFLOW —a Korean companies with offices in California— announced that it has chosen to conduct a first-in-human study in Barranquilla to test the efficacy of its innovative and breakthrough artificial pancreas medical device. On January 24, 2019, PAVMed (Nasdaq:PAVM) —a publicly-traded New York company— also announced its decision to conduct its first-in-human trial in Colombia and is evaluating conducting the trial at a health institution in Barranquilla.
The CHG was created by the local government of Barranquilla to promote and potentialize the city's immense healthcare infrastructure. The city government realized that by creating a cluster of the leading healthcare institutions in the city, as a group, they will be able to better compete to increase its international competitiveness, increase the quality of their services, and attract foreign pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and medical device companies looking to conduct their clinical trials in the city.
Barranquilla, the capital of Colombia’s Atlántico Department, is a bustling seaport flanked by the Magdalena River located in Colombia's Caribbean coast. The city is known for its enormous Carnival, which brings together flamboyantly costumed performers, elaborate floats and cumbia music. In the chic neighborhood of El Prado, the Museo Romántico showcases artifacts from past festivals and exhibits on famous Colombians, like writer Gabriel García Márquez. The Barranquilla metropolitan area has about 2.4 million people and include four other municipalities: Soledad, Galapa, Puerto Colombia and Malambo.
Barranquilla is the largest city in the Caribbean basin after Miami, FL. Barranquilla is a magnet for foreign direct investment, and this has created hundreds of jobs in the coastal city that is the capital of the Colombian Caribbean Region —and extensive area with over 11 million people. Companies including Indian BPO provider Sutherland, Norwegian multi-national Yara International, German pharmaceutical giants Bayer and Swiss cement producers Holcim, all have bases in the city. Barranquilla offers excellent opportunities in several economic sectors and is a little over one hour from Cartagena. It is one of the most cost effective major cities in the Americas, and was recently placed in the top 10 Cities of the Future rankings. The results, compiled by the Financial Times’ fDi magazine, evaluate the investment attracted by cities in the region as well as their cost effectiveness and foreign direct investment strategies to determine which cities are destined to be the best.
About bioaccess.™
bioaccess.™ is a Florida-based clinical research organization (CRO) and market access consulting company which mission is to help innovative medical device companies conduct clinical research and commercialize their innovations in Colombia and the rest of Latin America. The company provides its clinical research clients with support services to ensure their first-in-human trials are a success in Colombia (e.g., regulatory submission, logistical support, project management, and study monitoring; among others). For more information, please visit www.bioaccessla.com.
About Caribbean Health Group
The Caribbean Health Group is Barranquilla's government-initiated healthcare cluster and groups the eight leading institutions in the city that have decided that as a group, they can achieve increase competitiveness, quality, and increase revenue. For more information, please visit www.congresochg.com.
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bioaccess.™ Press Contact:
Julio G. Martinez-Clark, CEO
Tel: +1 (954) 903-7210
Email: jmclark@bioaccessla.com