Medfiles is a service provider, a Contract Research Organization (CRO), catering to both domestic and foreign customers. Our clients include pharmaceutical, medical device, and food/feed industry companies as well as other healthcare providers (e.g., hospitals). In clinical studies, we work between the sponsor and the study center(s). We coordinate and monitor clinical studies, manage regulatory requirements and needs, and ensure quality control across clinical projects. Medfiles has performed clinical research in almost all therapeutic areas. In the field of neurology, we have been involved, among others, in drug development for epilepsy, multiple sclerosis (MS), narcolepsy, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease.
Our business model is based on the transfer and sales of expertise. Our customers outsource their operations to us. For example, when we receive an order for a clinical study from a pharmaceutical company, we look for the best study centers (i.e., investigators and patients) to work with us. Finnish excellence and know-how makes it smooth to get new assignments and research orders, especially with Finland’s unique research cohorts, patient registries, biobanks, infrastructure, high-quality work, and patients willing to participate in studies. Hopefully, research-related bureaucracy including agreements in Finland will continue to become more streamlined.
How can we make Finland a more interesting destination for research?
As a small country, gathering skills and resources together and clear communication is indispensable. Neurocenter Finland is an excellent step in this direction: when we want to market Finnish expertise to foreign drug development companies, we need to have concrete, clear rationale and benefits as well as smooth paths for doing research here.
If the website of Neurocenter Finland offers complete, well-organized information regarding neuroscience skills, national research volumes, and operating models—a true one-stop shop—it would also certainly help us to convince our customers, and we can use this as a sales and marketing tool. An existing example of the one-stop-shop principle is the Finnish Investigators Network for Pediatric Medicines (Finpedmed), whose operational model is based on rapid and centralized communication between the parties, where a single platform allows you to explore the field of research, facilitate contact between different parties, and find all the information you need. This is the core of commercialization of academic research, i.e., the creation of a sales path in a concrete manner.
We welcome new innovations and approaches!
Increasingly, now and in the future, the therapeutic approach will be patient-centered, individualized, and tailored for the overall effects of genetic, environmental and lifestyle factors.
From the business viewpoint, such a focus on personalized medicine will bring not only the need but also the opportunity for new innovations and product development. These changes will require action from the pharmaceutical industry as well as the health technology and food industries.
For example, health technology (various medical devices) and nutrition will become an integral part of an individual health care package, aiming at more effective and safer care, with a focus on preventive medical care, that ultimately leads to cost savings for society. We are thus moving towards value-based healthcare.
At Medfiles, we are closely involved in these new innovations and approaches. For example, we are currently engaged in a clinical study aiming to develop a solution that can model the symptoms of cognitive deficits and measure the responses of drugs affecting cognition. We are also conducting clinical nutrition studies and investigations involving medical devices. We are thus developing and utilizing new tools and methods alongside so-called traditional clinical research methods, including new opportunities by registry studies, real-world data (RWD), and data analytics. Innovations give rise to further innovations, and these need to be validated efficiently in order to support drug development: to improve diagnosis, the use of drugs, therapeutic success, compliance, and quality of life.
And last but not the least: as a service company, we are not only B2B but also very researcher-oriented. If you have a drug, medical device or a nutritional product (idea), please contact us. Let us evaluate together whether and how it is possible to develop your idea right away.