This week it’s Volunteers’ Week where the nation celebrates and gives thanks to the millions of volunteers for the fantastic contribution they make. 

2020 has truly shown the role that volunteers play and the difference they can make to all our lives. From volunteers taking part in clinical trials for vital Covid-19 vaccinations and treatments through to the volunteers at vaccination centres; they should all be recognised for playing their part in the nation’s fight against the pandemic.

Here at Covance we would like to extend our thanks to all our valued volunteers who take part in our clinical trials. They are vital in the medical world’s development of new medicines to fight and treat many diseases and conditions.

Every day, people just like you become part of something extraordinary. Whether it’s advancing medical science or gaining a financial boost, our volunteers have many different reasons for participating in trials with Covance, but helping others is always the common theme.

If you would like to learn more about becoming a volunteer on one of our clinical trials, please get in touch on 0113 394 5200 or email [email protected]. We’d love to hear from you.

Image courtesy of Nathan Lemon – Unsplash

What’s the buzz at the Covance office in Geneva, Switzerland? The team is celebrating its first honey harvest. Yes, you read that correctly—its first honey harvest. You see, in May of this year, Covance Geneva’s Three Rings (or R-ings) Committee—representing “Rethinking, Reducing and Recycling”—worked with a local startup to install three beehives on the roof of the company’s four-story building in downtown Geneva. The Committee hopes this initiative will send a strong message about the vital importance of sustainable development and the difference each of us can make.

“The Three Rings Committee is empowered to identify positive initiatives for the company that further environmental awareness and responsibility,” says Bertrand Jaton, Associate Director, Master Data Management and Business Reporting, Covance, Geneva, Switzerland. It was Bertrand who first suggested the idea of rooftop beehives to the Committee, as it had proven to be a successful initiative at his wife’s company, but the project was conducted by Vally Kordorouba, a former QA auditor who retired just after the beehives were installed. In order to recognize her dedication to this project, one beehive was dedicated in her name.

“Many people don’t realize that more than 70 percent of all fruits and vegetables need bees to provide cross-pollination,” explains Bertrand. “Unfortunately, the bee population continues to decline due to pesticides, parasites and monoculture (the cultivation or growth of a single crop, especially on agricultural or forest land). This can lead to a decline in the diversity of fruits and vegetables available to all of us. The Three Rings Committee is committed to raising awareness about this issue and contributing in our own small way to the solution.”

The 30-member Committee and their 600+colleagues at Covance Geneva are learning a great deal about bees and beekeeping, and it’s proving to be quite fascinating. Each of the three rooftop beehives serves as home to approximately 80,000 bees, so Covance is hosting some 240,000 bees. The hives are visible through the glass windows of an indoor hallway that circles the building. Each hive has only one queen bee whose role is to give birth to all of the other bees. There are 100 to 200 male bees per hive, while the remainder are working bees. Approximately half of the bees leave and return each day, collecting pollen to feed the baby bees. That pollen is then transformed into honey.

The first honey harvest at Covance Geneva occurred on August 8 and yielded 55 kilos of honey—enough to fill 380 small jars. While Covance will gift some of the honey to clients, most will be sold with all proceeds being donated to the Autisme Genève, a nonprofit organization supported by Covance Geneva for several years now. Future harvests may yield as many as 300 kilos per year, or about 2,400 jars. Two harvests are anticipated per year.

Based on numerous employee submissions, the honey has officially been named “Bee Real.” Employees also suggested the language for the label, which includes the slogan “Covance and Bees Working Together for a Greener and Sweeter Environment,” and accompanying text that reads “This honey, harvested on the roof of our laboratory, attests to the commitment of Covance toward the protection of bees, essential players pollinating flowers and trees.” Of course, the label will also feature the Covance logo and tagline, “Solutions Made Real.”

The Three Rings have created a series of ten posters about bees, designed to inform and engage the Covance Geneva team, which are now on display in the stairway of the four-story building. The poster series is part of a health and wellness campaign also created by the Three Rings that encourages people to use the stairs and to learn something new in the process. The previous poster series featured the history of Switzerland. In addition, Covance Geneva will host an annual bee workshop, where interested employees can learn more directly from the beekeeper.

Bertrand reports that the beekeeper is very impressed with the heartiness of the beehives, especially since Covance Geneva is located in an industrial area. The team shares in that excitement and has expressed great pride in its ability to sustain the rooftop beehives. Five employees who keep beehives at home are currently accompanying the beekeeper during his weekly visits, asking questions that will help them with their own hives.

“We have seen great interest from our team,” says Bertrand. “Covance is dedicated to diversity and bees are part of that diversity. No bees means much less diversity in our fruits and vegetables. We want to send a firm message that at Covance Geneva, we take that very seriously.”

Since the accidental discovery of penicillin in 1928, antibiotics have become an absolute cornerstone of medicine. Used to treat everything from meningitis to acne, and often prescribed to prevent infections after surgery or serious injury, it’s hard to imagine a world where we cannot rely on antibiotics to cure what ails us. However, with the onset of resistant ‘superbugs’, and with no new antibiotics being developed in the last 20 years, this world we can barely imagine could well become a reality.

The Arsenal – an overview of our antibiotics.

• Penicillin, macrolides and fluoroquinolones – penicillin, the mother of them all, is usually the first line of defence against a broad spectrum of bacterial infections. Macrolides like erythromycin and fluoroquinolones are a useful alternative for anyone who has a penicillin allergy
• Tetracycline – most often used to treat bacterial skin conditions like acne and rosacea
• Aminoglycosides – these are the ‘big guns’; as they can produce some unpleasant side effects, they are most often used to treat dangerous infections such as meningitis and sepsis.

All of the above work by preventing bacteria from repairing itself, preventing bacteria from multiplying, or by penetrating and bursting the bacteria’s cell walls.

The Battleground – challenges facing our antibiotics

• Over-prescription: As antibiotics have proven so effective at treating bacterial infections, they have arguably become a pharmaceutical ‘crutch’, prescribed to quickly dispatch illnesses which may have resolved by themselves given time and careful management. Additionally, antibiotics are sometimes mistakenly prescribed for viral infections such as colds and ‘flu. Antibiotics are not effective in treating viruses! However, the antibiotic will target harmless bacteria present in the body, and these encounters make it easier for the nasty bugs to resist that antibiotic in the future.
• Incorrect usage: It might seem counterintuitive to carry on taking medicine once you’ve stopped feeling poorly. But when it comes to bacterial infections, starting to feel better doesn’t necessarily mean that the ‘bugs’ are all dead and gone. Stop taking antibiotics before the course finishes and there’s a good chance that the remaining bacteria may recover, multiply and adapt to resist the antibiotic you’ve exposed them to.

The Enemy – the next generation of superbugs

Hearing the word ‘superbug’, you might immediately think of MRSA and C Difficile. While these infections can spread rapidly and may lead to dangerous complications, they can usually be treated with high-dose antibiotics.

An even greater concern is Multidrug-resistant Tuberculosis (MDR-TB). Despite treatment and vaccination programmes which gave us good control over the disease in the 20^th century, TB is becoming resistant to many antibiotics, meaning that patients often require medicines which are expensive, not readily available, or which cause unpleasant side effects. What’s more, TB is changing fast. Currently, around 9% of MDR-TB cases are diagnosed as ‘extensively resistant’, meaning that even our most powerful TB treatments are ineffective against it.

Just as TB has adapted quickly, there is a real danger of other infections including gonorrhoea and E Coli retaliating against this generation of antibiotics.

The Future – Where do we go from here?

Even before Phase 1 Clinical Trials can begin, drug development is a lengthy process. It can take up to 20 years for a drug to progress from Research and Development to the pharmacy shelves.  Fortunately, there are already a few promising new antibiotics in the pipeline which could hold the key to resisting the resistance!

• Tarocin A and Tarocin B – these molecules attack and damage the cell walls of harmful bacteria. By itself it may not be particularly effective, but it is hoped that a combination of tarocin and another antibiotic could attack bacteria on 2 fronts, rendering even resistant bacteria vulnerable to treatments once again. Lab tests of tarocins have shown promising results, and human clinical trials are expected to begin soon.
• Teixobactin – Lab tests have shown that teixobactin attacks infection in a completely new way, meaning that bacteria have little or no resistance to it. It is naturally present in soil, and does not flourish in the typical, sterile environment of a laboratory. Special technology has been developed to extract teixobactin from soil-dwelling microbes. As this process has been particularly complex, teixobactin is not as far forward in development as the tarocins, but it is believed that it could be used to develop as many as 25 potential new antibiotics.

In The Meantime

It is highly likely that all of us will need to use at least 1 course of antibiotics at some point in our lives. It’s in everybody’s best interest to resist the resistance! Here’s how you can help

• Practice good hygiene – the majority of superbugs are spread through contact with contaminated surfaces. Ensure that you clean your hands after visiting the loo, and after any visits to the GPs surgery or hospital. Using your own towels, flannels etc can help with this too – this is one instance where it’s okay not to share!
• Don’t ask your Dr for antibiotics – trust his or her judgement. You may not be prescribed antibiotics immediately if your Dr suspects you have a viral or a mild bacterial infection. You can always return if your symptoms persist or worsen!
• If you’re given antibiotics, use them all – even if you’re feeling better. That bug could come back with a vengeance and be much harder to shift this time!
• Consider taking part in Clinical Trials – drug development can take up to 20 years, even when there is an urgent need for a new medicine. Healthy volunteers who take part in paid clinical trials with Covance help to speed up the process and get essential treatments on the market sooner.

[fullwidth background_color=”” background_image=”” background_parallax=”none” enable_mobile=”no” parallax_speed=”0.3″ background_repeat=”no-repeat” background_position=”left top” video_url=”” video_aspect_ratio=”16:9″ video_webm=”” video_mp4=”” video_ogv=”” video_preview_image=”” overlay_color=”” overlay_opacity=”0.5″ video_mute=”yes” video_loop=”yes” fade=”no” border_size=”0px” border_color=”” border_style=”” padding_top=”20″ padding_bottom=”20″ padding_left=”0″ padding_right=”0″ hundred_percent=”no” equal_height_columns=”no” hide_on_mobile=”no” menu_anchor=”” class=”” id=””][one_full last=”yes” spacing=”yes” center_content=”no” hide_on_mobile=”no” background_color=”” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” background_position=”left top” border_size=”0px” border_color=”” border_style=”” padding=”” margin_top=”” margin_bottom=”” animation_type=”” animation_direction=”” animation_speed=”0.1″ class=”” id=””][fusion_text] Over the last 2 years, we have invited both patients and healthy volunteers to take part in a high volume of clinical trials for drugs which aim to treat diabetes or diabetic symptoms. Why is this disease such a big deal? These recent statistics from the World Health Organisation speak for themselves:

• An estimated 422 MILLION people worldwide have diabetes
• This is figure has quadrupled since 1980
• The number is set to double AGAIN in the next 20 years
• Of all diabetics, around 90% suffer with Type 2.

To cut a long story short, diabetes – and type 2 in particular –affects a vast number of people globally now, and will do for the foreseeable future.

As the number of people diagnosed with type 2 increases, we are beginning to see how the condition fits into a wider health landscape. Driven by hectic modern lifestyles, we are all tending towards more ‘convenience’ food, which is often laden with sugar and fat. In the digital age, it is harder to detach from TV box-sets, video games, social media and email inboxes, and we’re generally leading less active lifestyles. Obesity is on the rise, and this is known to increase our chances of developing type 2 diabetes.

So, why doesn’t everyone just lose some weight?

Well, there is a little more to it than that. Alongside lifestyle, several other factors impact who will and who will not contract the condition:

• Genetics – you are far more likely to be diagnosed with Type 2 if a member of your immediate family has the condition
• Age – although it is now being diagnosed in children as young as 7, risk of contracting type 2 increases with age. Medical advances have meant that we are generally living to a much older age, which might partially explain the rise in cases.
• Ethnicity – type 2 diabetes is more prevalent in Afro-Caribbean, Black African, Chinese and South Asian communities.

In isolation, adopting a healthier lifestyle is not going to put an end to the growth of type 2 diabetes. We need improved medical and pharmaceutical options to better control it – and in the long-term, hopefully cure it.

But even if we accept that many cases of type 2 could be prevented by diet and exercise – does this make medical research in this area any less important?

One of the biggest challenges faced by Type 2 Diabetics is stigma. Because the disease is closely associated with lifestyle factors, there is a pervasive sentiment that Type 2 diabetics have ‘brought it on themselves’, and are less deserving of treatment than patients with other conditions. It is very common to see diabetes, and type 2 in particular, being treated as the butt of a joke.

This kind of attitude helps no-one. The fact is, over 370 million type 2 diabetics are currently living with an incurable disease which requires daily management, and which can result in coma, loss of eyesight, loss of limbs, and even loss of life. This is not a sentence which anyone ‘deserves’, and it would be unethical for the pharmaceutical industry to ignore such a serious health crisis!

But what about Type 1 diabetics? Type 1 happens when the pancreas completely stops producing insulin. Lifestyle factors play no part in the development of this condition. Many type 1s contract diabetes in early childhood, and must inject insulin several times daily in order to survive. Should our preoccupation with treating type 2 diabetes detract from type 1 research? Of course not – and fortunately, it doesn’t! A wealth of medicines and biotech instruments are being developed with the aim of treating or curing type 1 – from insulin inhalers, to the artificial pancreas, to 3D organ printing and pancreas transplants. And what’s more, treatments which are initially trialled in type 2s can often be adapted to benefit people with both types of the disease.

It is often possible for healthy men and women to take part in our paid clinical trials and help us to test type 2 diabetes treatments which could go on to benefit millions of people. Currently, we are also looking for type 2 diabetics aged 18-75 who use metformin, or control the condition through diet and exercise. If you think you would qualify, and you’d like to find out more, give us a call on 0113 394 5200 or apply here.

[fullwidth background_color=”” background_image=”” background_parallax=”none” enable_mobile=”no” parallax_speed=”0.3″ background_repeat=”no-repeat” background_position=”left top” video_url=”” video_aspect_ratio=”16:9″ video_webm=”” video_mp4=”” video_ogv=”” video_preview_image=”” overlay_color=”” overlay_opacity=”0.5″ video_mute=”yes” video_loop=”yes” fade=”no” border_size=”0px” border_color=”” border_style=”” padding_top=”20″ padding_bottom=”20″ padding_left=”0″ padding_right=”0″ hundred_percent=”no” equal_height_columns=”no” hide_on_mobile=”no” menu_anchor=”” class=”” id=””][one_full last=”yes” spacing=”yes” center_content=”no” hide_on_mobile=”no” background_color=”” background_image=”” background_repeat=”no-repeat” background_position=”left top” border_size=”0px” border_color=”” border_style=”” padding=”” margin_top=”” margin_bottom=”” animation_type=”” animation_direction=”” animation_speed=”0.1″ class=”” id=””][fusion_text]Shortly before last year’s mad Christmas rush I had the privilege of spending a day reading flash fiction, poetry and short stories by all the finalists of the Hysteria writing competition and writing a foreword for the finished anthology.

I have to say, this was a delightful day for me; but what do this competition and its accompanying book have to do with our clinical trials?

To answer this question, I should first tell you a little bit about the competition. It was set up in 2012 as a platform for female writers, with ‘women’ as the central theme for all of the submissions. Also, the competition is hosted by the Hysterectomy Association UK, which means it gives us an opportunity to connect with some of our most precious volunteers.

Have you ever been on our website and noticed that we regularly have studies which only allow post-menopausal or surgically sterile women?

The reason for this is very simple. As most of the medications we test are brand new, we do not yet know how they might affect the development of an unborn child. Indeed, there are many medicines already on the market which we use routinely and regularly which can be harmful to foetal development – like ibuprofen, for example.

Of course, then, it is very important that pregnant women don’t enrol in our studies. Furthermore, when a new drug is in the earliest stages of testing, we need to ensure that a female volunteer won’t fall pregnant during a study, or during the period after the study when elements of the drug may remain in the body.

While we do have strict rules around contraception, the only way for clinical researchers to completely remove all risk to unborn babies is to appeal for volunteers who are no longer able to conceive.

And as so many of our studies are for people aged 18-55, we are often reliant on women who have had a Hysterectomy.

Hysterectomy is a major surgery. Undergoing this procedure can be very traumatic in itself, and the decision to have a hysterectomy is almost always the result of an emergency situation or a long duration of pain or illness. Both physically and emotionally, this is a difficult experience for a woman. Even though the surgery is undertaken for the benefit of the patient’s health, it takes time to come to terms with the feelings of loss associated with removal of the womb.

Perhaps it offers some comfort, then, that these women are essential to the progress of medical research? Physically and metabolically, male and female bodies are different to one another, so it is important that new drugs are tested on both men and women. Also, some drugs are developed to treat conditions which affect women exclusively, such as uterine fibroids and endometriosis; it is not feasible to test these drugs in men, nor is it ethical to test them in women who are able to bear children.

And this brings us neatly back to the question of why we sponsored a writing competition. The audience for Hysteria 2015 is crucial to our day-to-day work at Covance, and moreover, crucial to the future of medicine.

If you are post-menopausal or have had a hysterectomy and you’d like to learn more about our paid clinical trials, please click here.

If you would like to know more about the Hysteria 2015 anthology or to purchase a copy, please click here.