MedAvante Names Leading Expert to Head Neurocognition Therapeutic Area
HAMILTON, N.J., Jan. 10, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- MedAvante, Inc., the leader in centralized expert evaluation of treatments for central nervous system (CNS) disorders, announced the appointment of Christopher Randolph, PhD, ABPP-CN, to the new position of Vice President, Neurocognition. Dr. Randolph will lead a growing team of clinical and training experts and experienced, calibrated clinicians focusing on Alzheimer's disease (AD), mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and other neurocognitive disorders.
"MedAvante has made a serious commitment to helping drug developers in this vital therapeutic category reduce their risk of failure due to inconclusive trial results," said Paul M. Gilbert, Chief Executive Officer of MedAvante. "Chris Randolph is a highly accomplished, widely recognized expert in Alzheimer's disease clinical trials, and he brings with him a wealth of domain expertise as well as a highly successful study track record."
"Having Chris Randolph join our senior scientific leadership team ideally complements MedAvante's science-driven methodologies that are bringing about a paradigm shift in the way CNS clinical trials are conducted," said Gilbert.
Dr. Randolph is the author of the Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status (RBANS), a brief neurocognitive battery used widely around the world. He has consulted on test development for over 20 years, including the revisions of the Wechsler intelligence and memory scales. His extensive experience in CNS clinical trials includes work as an investigator and consultant, as well as creating and supervising rater training programs for a large number of Phase 2 and Phase 3 multinational studies in AD, schizophrenia, stroke, hepatic encephalopathy, and traumatic brain injury.
"The landscape of CNS clinical trials has changed substantially over the last 10-15 years, particularly in Alzheimer's disease," said Dr. Randolph. "Today's emphasis on early diagnosis, early intervention, and the identification of disease-modifying therapies requires re-thinking traditional approaches to designing and implementing clinical trial methodologies, from the choice of endpoints to screening procedures to reducing noise in clinical assessments."
"MedAvante has a proven track record of applying a scientifically rigorous and technologically advanced approach to solving these problems in psychiatry trials," said Dr. Randolph. "I am extremely excited by the opportunity to bring these solutions to bear upon clinical trials in AD and other neurological illnesses."
Dr. Randolph is the author of numerous peer-reviewed articles, board-certified in clinical neuropsychology and continues to serve as Clinical Professor of Neurology and Director of the Neuropsychology service at Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood, Illinois.
About MedAvante, Inc.
MedAvante is the premier global provider of centralized expert psychiatric rating and monitoring services to the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device industries. Its flagship service, MedAvante Centralized Ratings, provides real-time assessments, either by telephone or videoconference, of subjects in global drug trials. Centralizing the assessors and blinding them to study protocols results in a level of standardization, calibration and objectivity that is not achievable with a decentralized group of study raters participating from unconnected investigative sites. In addition to Centralized Ratings, the company provides Continuous Quality Control (CQC), a monitoring service in which expert calibrated trainers review site-based study interviews via audio and video. MedAvante solutions help sponsors achieve increased drug effect and reduced trial failure rates, enabling them to bring better drugs to market faster. MedAvante operates facilities in Hamilton, NJ, Madison, WI, and Moscow, Russia. For more information, please visit www.medavante.com.
SOURCE MedAvante, Inc.
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