Produced by Cedrick Adolphe
The vision of JSS Medical Research is to become the preferred provider of clinical research services for a range of healthcare stakeholders including industry, hospitals, universities and governments.
To achieve this goal, JSS Medical Research is continuing to deliver on its promise of providing an exceptional array of clinical trial services that comply with the most rigorous scientific, ethical and regulatory standards, and executing on its plans for global expansion.
The origins of the company date back to 1985 when the founder, Dr. John S. Sampalis started a consultation business offering study design, statistical analysis, and medical writing services. In the 1990s clinical operations and data management services were introduced, and in 2005 the quality assurance department was established. JSS Medical Research expanded its offering in health economics and outcomes research in 2012, providing reimbursement strategy services and leveraging health economics expertise to build the key elements of reimbursement submissions.
Today JSS Medical Research provides the complete spectrum of services for healthcare research including study design, study set up, site management, project management, data management, pharmacovigilance, quality assurance, statistical analysis, medical writing, and market access.
Major Projects and Growth
JSS Medical Research is currently active in over 15 countries. The largest ongoing project is a 7-country post-marketing observational study assessing the burden of illness of herpes zoster.
The growth of JSS Medical Research in Latin America is increasing and expansion to other regions in the world is in the short-term plans.
“One example of how JSS Medical Research brings value to our global clients is the collaborative effort between the University of Rosario in Colombia, a pharmaceutical sponsor, and JSS Medical Research that is aimed at educating healthcare providers, government officials and third-party payers on pharmacoepidemiological studies, in essence creating a Latin American centre of excellence for the real-world evaluation of safety and effectiveness of marketed treatments”, shared Emmanouil Rampakakis, Vice President of Scientific Affairs.
In the last few years, JSS Medical Research has experienced a 20 percent annual growth in revenue, which is above the industry standard. As part of its growth strategy, JSS Medical Research realized two M&As, Integrated Research in Canada and LatAm Clinical Trials in Latin America.
“This augmented the JSS Medical Research operational and regulatory expertise and solidified its presence in Latin America, increasing our geographic reach and our ability to conduct global multi-country studies,” said Rampakakis.
Technology in Research
The past decade has been an exciting era of change and maturation for the CRO industry. The increased financial pressure on the pharmaceutical industry with the expiration of patents on blockbuster drugs and the demand of healthcare payers for clinically and economically better drugs mandated the parallel adaptation of the CRO industry. Concepts like risk-based monitoring, patient reported outcomes using mobile applications, cloud-based systems, and electronic health records which seemed a luxury a few years ago have become or are becoming industry standards.
Innovations in technology are playing a major role in the pharmaceutical industry, in an effort to improve efficiencies, save time, and reduce costs. “Real-time” mechanisms of data collection and patient oversight translate into improved patient management. And, in the end, this is what it’s all about – making a positive impact on a patient’s life.
Companies that continue to leverage technology, improve their efficiency and maintain a strategic focus will add value to the clients. To this effect, JSS Medical Research recently implemented an internal web-based project management software, which features enterprise work management, e-tracking document management and portfolio management. “This was a pretty big project for us but we are certain that it will help us optimize our services to our clients”, Rampakakis commented.
For the Future
The increasing trend of outsourcing in clinical research is guaranteed to continue. The industry acknowledges that CROs have the required scientific expertise and state-of-the-art infrastructure available for them to leverage, which is seen in the series of recent strategic partnerships built.
JSS Medical Research plans to continue growing organically and through M&As. The company has an ambitious but stable business model which involves additional expansion in emerging markets.
Currently, JSS is in the advanced stages of expanding into Asia while the idea of Europe is in the cards as well.
With its strong academic affiliations, expertise in the design and execution of clinical-epidemiological studies and flexibility and innovation in a competitive industry, JSS Medical Research is poised to exceed its growth goals and its clients’ expectations.