Headlands Research, a clinical trial site network with locations across the U.S. and Canada, has made its first step into the Caribbean. The CRO has acquired CMRCenter, a trial site in Puerto Rico’s capital of San Juan.
The move is intended to unite CMRC’s expertise of Puerto Rico’s cultural and regulatory landscapes with Headlands’ centralized quality systems and investment in technology, Headlands said in a July 2 release, with the ultimate goal of providing trial sponsors access to a large Hispanic population under the FDA’s purview.
"CMRC's proven performance in CNS, vaccine and specialty trials, combined with its deep ties to Puerto Rico's diverse, FDA-regulated patient community, gives sponsors a seamless, single-contract path to high-quality enrollment in a priority market," Headlands CEO Kyle Burtnett said in the release.
The San Juan site has also run trials in early Alzheimer's disease, rheumatology and migraine, among other disease areas, according to the release.
CMRC is led by founder Carmen Navarro, who serves as CEO, and principal investigator Carmen Deseda, Ph.D.
"CMRC has been dedicated to advancing the well-being of Puerto Ricans through quality, patient-centric clinical research," Navarro said in the release. "By joining the Headlands Research site network, we expand that commitment, offering our community earlier access to innovative therapies, broadening the therapeutic areas we serve and adding Puerto Rico's diverse voice to global studies that will benefit patients everywhere."
With CMRC, Headlands now consists of 22 sites. The network established another site focused on Hispanic patient populations last September, along the U.S.-Mexico border in El Paso, Texas.
Trial diversity has long been a priority for Headlands; the network recently wrapped up a partnership with Pfizer that saw the opening of five new sites meant to reach populations that have been historically excluded from clinical research. The new sites broke ground in Brownsville, Texas—another border town—as well as greater Los Angeles, Detroit, Atlanta and Orlando.