Pushing back the frontiers of science

A company in the Highlands and Islands' growing life sciences sector has expanded its operations by moving to bigger premises and investing in new equipment.

Strathspey based Frontier Science (Scotland) Ltd which has been involved in the successful clinical trials of the cancer drug Herceptin, is making a substantial investment by moving from Kingussie to their new Kincraig base. HIE Inverness and East Highland has approved a grant of £16,368 towards the development which is projected to create at least four new research jobs.

The company made this move in anticipation of a new project and has now confirmed that it will be involved in two new breast cancer trials comparing the drug Lapatinib with Herceptin both alone and in combination. Lapatinib has recently been approved in America for the treatment of women with metastatic breast cancer. These new trials will be looking at the drug in patients with early stage HER2 positive breast cancer.

Frontier Science (Scotland) Ltd (FSS) was responsible for some of the project management and statistical analysis work for the HERA trial. This is a large international clinical trial with over 5,000 patients which led to the approval of Herceptin for treating women diagnosed with early stage HER2 positive breast cancer. The results of this trial are widely regarded as constituting a major advance in the treatment of women with HER2 positive breast cancer.

The HERA trial was undertaken in collaboration with the Breast International Group (BIG) in Brussels and Frontier Science and Technology Research Foundation Inc in Boston, USA, with patients being entered through participating hospitals in the UK and around the world. The two new trials are also being undertaken in collaboration with BIG and Frontier Science and Technology Research Foundation.

The company is involved in several other trials, providing data management and statistical collaboration to clinical investigators around the world. Two trials which currently involve investigators in the US are being expanded to include participation from investigators in Taiwan.

Ruaraidh MacNeil, acting area director of HIE Inverness and East Highland said: "The success of Frontier Science (Scotland) underlines the growing importance of our area as a location of excellence in the medical and life sciences sector, and the new posts being created are high quality, well paid jobs. It also proves that rural areas can work and compete for international business every bit as effectively as those in urban areas as long as the technology infrastructure is there to support them."

FSS has expertise in managing clinical trials, quality control of trial data, statistical design and analysis as well as providing training and education for trial participants. FSS is a not-for-profit organisation, recognised as a Scottish charity and is orientated towards academic research.

The company was established in 2001 and opened its office in Kingussie in 2002, with two full-time and two part-time staff. Now employing 11 people including a biostatistician, a statistical programmer and seven data management staff, Frontier Science (Scotland) is going from strength to strength.

Managing director of FSS, Eleanor McFadden said: "We collaborate worldwide with several different organisations and have close links to Frontier Science and Technology Research Foundation in the US. We couldn't work in a great location like Kincraig in the Cairngorms if we didn't have access to the modern, high speed telecommunications network that exists here."

Ms McFadden is currently president-elect of the Society for Clinical Trials - an international organisation devoted to advancing the science of clinical trials - and will take over as president in May.

FSS has also recently been involved in the initial set up and organisation of the Scottish Cancer Research Network and in the establishment of the Cancer Clinical Trials Unit Scotland (CaCTUS).