The GMLC Annual Stakeholder Meeting is taking place on Monday 16th July 2012 click here for more information
Who are we?
Welcome to the Greater Manchester, Lancashire and South Cumbria Medicines for Children Research Network (GMLC) website. We are one of six local research networks in England that form the Medicines for Children Research Network.
We support research at NHS organisations in our region and also work in close partnership with West Yorkshire, helping to develop and support the West Yorkshire research in CHildren (WYCH) initiative. Find out more about WYCH here.
What do we do?
We help our local NHS Trusts to:
"Facilitate the conduct of randomised controlled trials and other well-designed studies for medicines for children, including those for prevention, diagnosis and treatment".
Why do we need more research into medicines used in children?
Currently, many of the medicines given to children are only tested in adults. This means that a lot less is known about how drugs work in the young and there are fewer medicines that children can easily take. All new medicines used in children must be properly tested through research to find out:
• Whether the medicine works better than the best current treatment
• Whether the medicine is safe and what side effects may be expected
• What dose works best
Testing is carried out through clinical trials which usually involves testing a new treatment against the best currently available treatment to see which is better and safer. It is important that we carry out clinical trials in children as well as adults, as children are very different and the results may not be the same.
What about other types of research in children?
We also help to facilitate research involving children that doesn’t involve medicines called Paediatric Specialty Group (PSG). Find out more about PSG here.
The NIHR Medicines for Children Research Network is part of the NIHR Clinical Research Network, which supports research to make patients, and the NHS, better.
