Costing templates for Primary Care and Med-Tech launched

The NIHR Clinical Research Network has expanded its suite of "industry" costing templates, to include a template for costing Primary Care studies, and a template for costing Medical Technology studies.

The new templates come on the back of the success of the Secondary Care costing template, which was developed to ensure that NHS hospital Trusts adopted a consistent approach to charging life-sciences companies for the costs associated with running a commercially-sponsored clinical trial in the NHS. The Secondary Care template has been widely adopted, as it provides commercial researchers with a reliable method for budgeting, while ensuring that NHS Trusts are properly reimbursed for any hospital resources used in the course of conducting the trial.

Says Clare Morgan, Director of Industry at the NIHR Clinical Research Network, "Life-sciences companies play a vital role in bringing cutting-edge treatments to patients, as well as making a huge contribution to the UK economy, so it is important that we create systems and tools to encourage these companies to carry out research here in the NHS. The original costing template was well-received by industry researchers, so we are very pleased to be able to extend the clarification on costs to include Primary Care and Med-Tech studies."