Citeline, an Informa business unit, has released Chinatrove, the newest addition to its suite of pharma R&D intelligence services.

Chinatrove is designed to help pharmaceutical companies and CROs streamline their identification of potential sites from among CFDA-certified hospitals. These are the only sites sanctioned for running local clinical trials, a government requirement for anyone aiming to bring a new drug to market in China.

Assuming CFDA approved hospitals have the specific equipment and infrastructure needed for a trial can be a costly oversight. Chinatrove will help companies generate better site target lists by providing key site prequalification information, including key clinical department heads' contact information.

"Well regarded industry experts have shared with Citeline that trial sites in China have failed due to lack of critical medical or laboratory equipment," said Christine Blazynski, Ph.D., senior vice president, new product development. "We sought a solution to help minimize these failures and developed Chinatrove. And, in building this new product, we feel we've added transparency to the clinical trial space around the world's largest population and market."

Knowing which hospitals have the right disease certifications, the appropriate departments with adequate numbers of specialists, hospital level and grade, bed count, outpatient turnover/day and required diagnostic, treatment and laboratory equipment will facilitate decision-making by both the pharma companies and CROs seeking to run trials in China.

"The numbers of public hospitals approved to run clinical trials is growing," said Cydney Brooks, Ph.D., senior director, product management and strategy. "The breadth of diseases receiving CFDA approval also is increasing, as well as penetration beyond the very large city hospitals into smaller hospitals and cities—all of which create potential opportunities for selecting sites."