Welcome to the Greater Manchester, Lancashire and South Cumbria Medicines for Children Research Network (GMLC MCRN) website. We are one of six local research networks in England that form the Medicines for Children Research Network.
What do we do?
We help NHS organisations in our region 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 and treatments 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 must be properly tested through research as this helps 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
The testing of medicines is mainly carried out through clinical trials. A clinical trial usually involves testing a new treatment against the best currently available treatment to see which is better. 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.
More children in research means they will benefit more quickly from better safer and more child friendly medicines.
What about other types of research in children?
We also help to facilitate research involving children that doesn’t involve medicines, called Paediatric Non Medicines Research (PNMR). Find out more here
