 |
 |
  |
|
|
|
 |
|
|
|
| |
History of SocraTec R&D
SocraTec R&D was founded in 1998 by Professor Henning Blume and Dr. Barbara Schug. Both founders
have far-reaching experience from many years in drug research and development, particularly in the
fields of biopharmaceutics and phase-I clinical studies. With this background they began their joint
venture offering the pharmaceutical industry a service programme at the highest professional level.
Successful development
SocraTec R&D operated initially from two different locations: company headquarters were in the Frankfurt
area with the departments Project Management, Quality Assurance, Management and Administration. The
Clinical Pharmacology Unit was set up in Thuringia, where a brand new hospital offered ideal conditions
for establishing a contract research organization. During the first five years following the foundation
of SocraTec, more than 100 phase-I projects were carried out in this modern unit.
The dynamic growth of the company and the broadening service spectrum offered called for a change in
requirements. In summer 2004, this was met by opening our new Clinical Pharmacology Unit in the city of
Erfurt. Here, with the help of a modular organization principle, studies with varying numbers of
volunteers/patients and differing requirements could be carried out under optimal conditions and also
in parallel. Moreover, the new facilities provided an ideal environment for special investigations,
such as the determination of the site of absorption, and "first-in-man" studies.
In January 2006 an additional Clinical Pharmacology Unit was set up in Berlin where gastrointestinal
imaging studies are performed using the Magnetic Marker Monitoring technique. This initiative was
started in collaboration with Prof. Werner Weitschies, Greifswald, and the Physikalisch-Technische
Bundesanstalt (PTB), Berlin. Further information may be also taken from our
PDF-folder "Magnetic Marker Monitoring".
SocraTec R&D now has a workforce of more than 100 skilled employees, of which approximately 25 are
based in Oberursel and the balance in Erfurt and Berlin. The relatively high proportion of graduates
(especially in medicine and pharmaceutical sciences) reflects the demands made on the company.
Alliances and Internationalization
The growing workforce is not only due to the increasing number of studies, but also to the parallel
tendency towards more complex projects. Whereas bioavailability investigations were the main activity
at the beginning,
absorption site studies
with the aid of intestinal tubes and gastrointestinal imaging using
Magnetic Marker Monitoring
have now been added. Such complex technologies demand larger teams of highly qualified personnel.
SocraTec R&D has also systematically extended its range of services. This includes clinical studies
in later phases of drug research and development, investigations on the pharmaceutical quality of
medical products, development of therapeutically optimized formulations and regulatory affairs. The
service range undergoes ongoing extension in conjunction with long-standing, experienced partners.
|
|
|
|