At the start of this week newspaper Diário de Notícias revealed that Lisbon is to become home to a new “mega-centre dedicated to clinical research”; a unit that will reportedly “carry out research in areas where Portuguese patients have the greatest needs”, such as oncology, cardiology, diabetes and neurology.
In oncology alone, according to the report, the Clinical Investigation Centre (CIC) could put up to a fifth of its patients on trials for new medicines, covering close to 200 people a year.
Carlos Martins, head of the North Lisbon Hospital Centre’s administrative board, said the goal “is to ensure more possibilities for treatment, especially in areas where there are none.”
At the same time, he explained, the centre aims to “bring innovative treatments, to train professionals and enhance the clinical curriculum.”
The new centre, which is located in Lisbon’s Academic Centre of Medicine, is due to open in October and takes advantage of expertise from three institutions: the Santa Maria Hospital, the Institute of Molecular Medicine and the Lisbon Faculty of Medicine.
An entire floor in the building – the 7th floor – has been freed up to accommodate the Centre and work on it is already complete, at a cost of around €300,000.