The PPD clinical research business of Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc., the world leader in serving science, has been awarded a five-year contract to provide regulatory affairs support and related services for the Blueprint MedTech (BPMT) program, a new multi-institute/center initiative at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) supporting development of translational neurological devices. The BPMT program is a new NIH incubator with a collaborative reach across 11 NIH institutes, whose goal is to accelerate patient access to safe, effective, cutting-edge medical devices to diagnose and/or treat disorders of the nervous system. During each year of the contract, the BPMT incubator aims to support the development of multiple novel technologies from pharmaceutical, biotechnology and device companies.

Thermo Fisher’s PPD clinical research business has three decades of experience successfully delivering clinical research services to governmental agencies, contractors and nonprofits in conducting therapeutic, vaccine and medical device studies on a global scale across all trial phases and a broad array of therapeutic areas. In neuroscience, the business has expertise in neurodegenerative disorders, such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases; rare neurological disorders; psychiatry; and neuroinflammatory and other disorders.

“The NIH’s Blueprint MedTech program is an important collaborative effort focusing on the development of neurotechnology solutions to diagnose and treat nervous system diseases, including psychiatric disorders,” said David M. Johnston, Ph.D., senior vice president and president, clinical research, Thermo Fisher Scientific. “With the scope of the challenge we face in neurological disease, the research that BPMT performs is vital to improving the outcomes of patients battling this group of diseases. We are privileged to support BPMT in those efforts.”

Advances in the understanding of neurology and neurological diseases have led to significant progress in the development of treatments for neurodegenerative and psychiatric diseases. While design of clinical trials in this field can be challenging, the PPD clinical research business has the tools and expertise necessary to help sponsors develop successful, cost-effective studies that minimize site and patient burden.

The PPD clinical research business has conducted more than 400 neuroscience studies and over 200 medical device projects during the past five years, involving more than 60,000 patients at nearly 10,000 research sites around the world. The business also has worked on 58 of the 187 neuroscience drugs approved globally over the past five years.

This project will be funded in whole with federal funds from the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), NIH and Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) under Contract No. 75N95022D00020.