The Covance-Royal Liverpool University Hospital Clinical Research Unit (the Royal)—has become the first National Health Service (NHS) facility in England to be granted Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) standard and supplementary phase I accreditation.

The accreditation means the Royal has the first NHS CRU in England that meets the standards required for early trials.

MHRA phase I accreditation will allow the trust to perform trials in patients with treatments under evaluation. It will help provide patients with greater access to the latest drugs and technologies and will bring economic benefits to the city of Liverpool as a center for global healthcare research.

The accreditation was introduced to improve the safety of research volunteers and assesses the capability of the CRU based on facilities, procedures, training and experience of staff. This accreditation will allow the Royal, together with the University of Liverpool, the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine and six other local NHS Trusts that comprise Liverpool Health Partners (LHP), to prevent illnesses, provide faster diagnoses and find new treatments. LHP will make Liverpool a center for clinical research to ensure the benefits of medical research breakthroughs are directly passed on to patients in the region.

“This will give local patients the opportunity to take part in clinical trials here at the Royal, using the latest drugs and other treatments, as part of studies that will meet standards within the safest environment,” said Dr. Richard Fitzgerald, co-director of the CRU. “The Covance-Royal Liverpool University Hospital CRU, together with its academic leads, will be available for researchers across the Liverpool Health Partners for use in early phase clinical research.”