Press Release

South Coast Clinical Trials Puts Traditional Patient Care Values

Back in Pharmaceutical Clinical Trial Research

Company Strives to Go Above and Beyond Industry Standards

ANAHEIM, Calif. – October 5, 2009 – South Coast Clinical Trials believes that satisfied patient participants make a successful medical trial. The leading Southern California-based provider of clinical research trials for the pharmaceutical industry has even taken it one step further to ensure traditional patient care values are the cornerstone for every trial that they do in order to provide the most complete results for their valued sponsors.

“Our patients are the key to the success of our company’s ability to provide important clinical trial data for the pharmaceutical industry,” said Dr. Adonis Sfera, MD, founder of South Coast Clinical Trials. “We are in the business of helping patients. Therefore, we are committed to treating our patients as human beings and we strive to improve their lives before, during and after a clinical trial.”

The clinical trial industry suffers from the image that it recruits people for trials, treats them poorly and then fails to retain them. Some trials have even lost participants in the middle of the trial due to poor patient care and have jeopardized the results for their medical sponsors.

“We have strong retention of patients during a trial,” said Dan Sfera, head of business development for South Coast Clinical Trials. “We actually have a cumulative database of more than 100,000 individuals that we can use for trials.”

Patient care issues have also hurt the industry’s ability to reach members of diverse populations to participate in clinical trials. Because of this, many people in ethnic communities are fearful of participating in medical trials and the sponsors are missing out on reaching a representative population of all ethnic groups.

South Coast Clinical Trials has gone beyond the industry average for patient care and outreach efforts for the minority population. Their strong reputation for quality customer service and patient care standards means that their subject base is actually 30 percent Hispanic and 25 percent Asian and Pacific Islander. Traditionally, these have been two of the hardest ethnic groups to reach in medical trials.

“We stress the quality of patient care that we provide and strive to inform minority groups of their importance of participating in medical trials to benefit their culture,” said Dr. Johnny Edrozo, Principal Investigator at South Coast Clinical Trials. “It is important that every culture be represented to have a true picture of the population.”

Along with overcoming some of the past issues and myths about patient care in clinical trials, South Coast Clinical Trials also ensures that there is a team of professionals ready to perform -patient care before, during and after a trial. Our mission is to have a network of psychiatrists, psychologists, community outreach personnel, and social workers on site as well as providing our patients with follow-up after a study is completed.  This novel approach provides patients with a level of comfort knowing that their needs will be addressed after the study is finished.  The innovative after-care program that we provide increases our retention rate.

“With our pre-screening methods we are able to ensure that appropriate patients are participating in our clinical trials,” said Dr. Adonis Sfera, MD. “This translates into quality data for the sponsors we work with.”  

For more information about South Coast Clinical Trials, or to get more information about our strong commitment to patient care, please visit us on the web at www.southcoastclinicaltrials.com or call 888-269-5759.

South Coast Clinical Trials Opens Second Location in San Bernardino

Sep 29th, 2009

ANAHEIM, California: South Coast Clinical Trials announced the opening of a new location in San Bernardino. Research sponsors will now be able to conduct studies in two separate sites simultaneously, utilizing the same regulatory documents and contracts.

"We are excited about the recent opening of our San Bernardino location,” said Adonis Sfera, MD, principal investigator for South Coast Clinical Trials. "We have operated in Anaheim for the past 10 years, and now we can offer a more diverse patient population for study participation with our second site.”

The two sites offer several benefits to pharmaceutical companies in need of research participants. A study can be set up in both locations in the same amount of time it would take for a single location, eliminating duplicated efforts and streamlining documentation. In addition, many members of the study population in both locations are members of the investigators' private practices, with extensive medical history and medical records available. Study participants also tend to be research-naïve, leading to more accurate and authentic study results.

South Coast Clinical Trials principal investigators Adonis Sfera and Johnny Edrozo are board-certified psychiatrists with more than 40 years combined research experience. The company specializes in phase 2-4 studies in the indications of psychiatry. For more information, contact South Coast Clinical Trials.