The Irish Fetal and Neonatal Translational (INFANT) Clinical Trial Network (CTN) represents a critical mass of obstetricians, neonatologists, midwives and allied professionals from six of the largest maternity hospitals on the islands of Ireland which deliver over 44,000 babies per anumm (nearly half of the total births on these islands). We have a strong track record in collaborative research and in the conduct of large-scale, international, multicentre, randomised control trials of diagnostics and interventions in pregnancy and neonates (e.g. PELICAN, NEMO, HIP, ANSeR and SafeBoosC). In addition, we are acknowledged world leaders in longitudinal cohort studies such as SCOPE, IMPROvED and BiHiVE and we have established, coordinate and curate Ireland’s first birth cohort, BASELINE.
Perinatal disease accounts for nearly 10% of the global burden of disease. However, R&D investment in perinatal health remains small and non-strategic; the number of registered pipeline drugs is only 1-5% than for other major disease areas. One barrier to the development of better therapies and diagnostics for mothers and babies is the intrinsic complexity of conducting trials in these uniquely vulnerable populations. INFANT is Ireland’s first dedicated perinatal research centre. Our proposed CTN, built on a robust platform of existing collaborations and more than a decade of experience in the conduct of RCTs in the perinatal population, will reverse this pattern.
INFANT-CTN has a balanced and extensive portfolio of both ‘home-grown’ and international clinical trials in pregnancy and in neonates. These include trials of novel interventions and diagnostics for pregnancy and neonatal complications, including propriety screening tests developed within INFANT and others such as the Alere PlGF Triage platform described in this application.
The INFANT-CTN will facilitate greater national collaboration in the arena of perinatal trials and will ensure we maintain our place at the international forefront of this niche area of clinical research.
