Clinical trials in Ireland under further scrutiny as hVIVO focuses on London Stock Exchange

By Chris Wheal

August 08, 2024

hVivo clinical trials focus on the UK, Netherlands and France

Contract research organisation hVIVO, which has its corporate office in Dublin but HQ in London, is to walk away from its European stock exchange listing to focus on London’s Alternative Investment Market (AIM). The firm said it would cancel its admission to trading on Euronext Growth from 7am on 2 September 2024.

The move comes after the company made significant investment in clinical trials outside Ireland and the Irish government accepted the need to make the country more attractive to clinical trials. Ireland attracts a much lower level of clinical trials than similar-sized European countries.

The hVIVO announcement said: “As hVIVO's primary operations, along with the majority of its employees and investor base, are in the UK, the board has decided to consolidate trading of the company's stock to its primary listing on the AIM of the London Stock Exchange. The cancellation will also remove certain costs, complexities and duplication that come from administering two listing regimes and will have no impact on hVIVO's ordinary shares, which will continue to trade on AIM under the ticker HVO.”

Canary Wharf in London

In July the company said it expected to report first half revenues of £35.6m, up more than 30% on H1 2023. It claimed to have had “a record number of volunteer inoculations across multiple studies and a variety of challenge models running simultaneously”. 

The firm runs challenge trials in London from its new state-of-the-art facilities in Canary Wharf, which opened this year. It said: “The move to the new facility in Canary Wharf positions the group for growth, with increased quarantine capacity and containment level 3 (CL-3) capability. This enables hVIVO to broaden its core human challenge trial offering to include new pathogen models.” 

The fast-growing business has two sites in the Netherlands as well as in Paris, France, via its Venn Life Sciences brand. And hVIVO has its FluCamp volunteer screening facilities in London and Manchester. 

New oversight group for clinical trials

Tackling Ireland’s lack of attractiveness for clinical trials, health minister Stephen Donnelly has set up a National Clinical Trials Oversight Group. It is tasked with developing recommendations to increase the number of trials taking place in Ireland. It includes Dr Caitriona Walsh, who sts on the board of the Irish Pharmaceutical Healthcare Association (IPHA) and is managing director innovative medicines and country president of Novartis Ireland.

The IPHA in May warned that Ireland is attracting fewer clinical trials than some European countries with similar populations and economic performances. Of 2,411 interventional clinical trials carried out in the three countries across the 10 years, 19% were conducted in Ireland (460) compared with 27% in Finland (661) and 54% in Denmark (1,290).

The trade body subsequently launched a standardised site contract similar to those used in other EU countries. This was the Clinical Trial Agreement [CTA] for clinical trials that involve Contract Research Organisations (CROs) – or CRO-mCTA for short.

Plan to double number of trials

Responding by launching the national oversight group, Donnelly said: "Clinical trials are a fundamental component of high-quality care and improving patient outcomes. Over the last 15 years, my department has invested more than €150m in clinical trials and research support services. Good progress has been made in improving the clinical trials landscape in Ireland, but challenges remain. Ireland is not attracting as many clinical trials as some other European countries. We need to do better for patients. 

“I want to double the number of clinical trials taking place in Ireland. A strong clinical trial infrastructure can give patients access to treatments that deliver improved outcomes and, in some cases, can be lifesaving. I want to see Ireland aim for best in class globally in terms of hosting more clinical trials, thereby increasing the number of people who can access and participate in clinical trials, with the ultimate objective of achieving better patient outcomes.

“I have established the National Clinical Trials Oversight Group to propose tangible, innovative solutions. Improvements have the potential to make an enormous difference to patients. I would like to thank the chair, Professor Donal Brennan, and all the members of the group, for their commitment in progressing the important work of this group. The work of the oversight group will be a vital contribution to the improvement of Ireland’s clinical trials landscape.”

PharmaLifeScience emailed and called hVIVO for comment but received no answer.