The National Marrow Donor Program® (NMDP)/Be The Match® and Be The Match BioTherapies® Mark Clinical Trials Day With New Resources and Services for Patients, Researchers, and Industry Sponsors

The dedicated webpage and complimentary white paper complement the NMDP’s partner role in the CIBMTR® (Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research®) and the CIBMTR’s Clinical Research Organization (CRO) services.

MINNEAPOLIS, May 17, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — The National Marrow Donor Program^® (NMDP)/Be The Match^® and Be The Match BioTherapies^® launched a new web resource page and free white paper, “Paving the way to successful cell therapy clinical trials with a comprehensive approach and patient support,” to mark Clinical Trials Day 2023. The new resources are designed to complement and raise awareness about their breadth of services for patients, researchers, and trial sponsors. The organizations are part of NMDP/Be The Match, a nonprofit global leader working daily to save lives through cellular therapy.

“Clinical trials are critical to improving patient outcomes and advancing the science of life-saving cell therapies, including hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT),” said Chief Executive Officer at NMDP/Be The Match, Amy L. Ronneberg. “At NMDP/Be The Match, we are committed to providing exceptional support for patients, researchers, and the cell therapy industry as we strive to improve patient access and outcomes and save more lives.”

With over 35 years in the cell and gene therapy space and 20-plus years managing cell therapy and HCT clinical trials in the CIBMTR, the NMDP/Be The Match has the expertise and experience to successfully lead clinical trials as both a Sponsor and as a CRO within the academic and industry space. With the CIBMTR CRO, clinical centers and biopharmaceutical companies can leverage a powerhouse of research support through a stable, established infrastructure.

In addition to core clinical trial services, the NMDP/Be The Match’s Patient Services has supported more than 1,400 patients by connecting them to a clinical trial through the Clinical Trials Search and Support Program (CTSS). Finally, by supporting expanded clinical trial access, the NMDP/Be The Match, is working to ensure that enrollment in clinical trials reflects the diversity of the whole patient population.

Patient Support

The NMDP/Be The Match simplifies access to clinical trials for patients, their families, and care teams through navigational and financial support. The organization has supported more than 1,400 patients contacted through its Clinical Trials Search & Support website and provided patients with nearly $1 million in financial support for clinical trial travel.

• Educational resources and videos are available for patients to help them easily understand the clinical trial process, treatment options, and trial results.
• Its Clinical Trials Navigator provides high-touch support to empower patients at every point as the patient explores and enrolls in a clinical trial.
• The CTSS website helps patients, and their care teams, identify open clinical trials for all benign and malignant hematology/oncology diagnoses. It filters results based on a patient’s needs, diagnosis, phase of treatment, age, and location, and includes clinical trials beyond those the NMDP/Be The Match sponsors.
• The NMDP/Be The Match offers financial support for patients who must travel to a clinical trial.

Clinical Trial Services

The CIBMTR CRO Services team specializes in the design and oversight of HCT and other cellular therapy clinical trials, with a focus on collaboration with organizations for the highest-impact clinical trials. With the unique challenges and complexities of these innovative treatments, academic and industry sponsors can benefit from:

• End-to-end clinical trial design, management, operations, and logistics support
• Built-out clinical infrastructure with single Institutional Review Board (sIRB), dedicated Data Safety Monitoring Board (DSMB), master contracts, and 21 CFR part 11 technology
• Access to patients and allogeneic donors for research
• Models, analyses, and interpretations to help sponsors define their targets
• Direct link to the CIBMTR Research Database with outcomes data on more than 630,000 patients
• Industry-leading infrastructure to collect and analyze patient outcomes data.

Since 2001, more than 45,600 patients and donors have been enrolled in clinical trials through the organizations. Today, they support 26 active clinical studies in design, enrollment, and follow-up and nine active studies under IND/IDE authorization from the US FDA.

For more information, visit the website.

Clinical Trials Day

Clinical Trials Day, sponsored by the ACRP, is celebrated globally to recognize the day that James Lind, a pioneer of naval hygiene, started what is often considered the first randomized clinical trial aboard a ship on May 20, 1747.

The National Marrow Donor Program^® (NMDP)/Be The Match^®

The National Marrow Donor Program^® (NMDP)/Be The Match^® is the leading global partner working to save lives through cellular therapy. With 35 years of experience managing the most diverse registry of potential unrelated blood stem cell donors and cord blood units in the world, NMDP/Be The Match is a proven partner in providing cures to patients with life-threatening blood and marrow cancers and diseases. Through their global network, they connect centers and patients to their best cell therapy option—from blood stem cell transplant to a next-generation therapy—and collaborate with cell and gene therapy companies to support therapy development and delivery through Be The Match BioTherapies^®. NMDP/Be The Match is a tireless advocate for the cell therapy community, working with hematologists/oncologists to remove barriers to consultation and treatment, and supporting patients through no-cost programs to eliminate non-medical obstacles to cell therapy. In addition, they are a global leader in research through the CIBMTR^® (Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research^®)—a collaboration with Medical College of Wisconsin, investing in and managing research studies that improve patient outcomes and advance the future of care.

Be The Match BioTherapies^®

Be The Match BioTherapies^® partners with cell and gene therapy companies to save lives through autologous and allogeneic cellular therapy. They are the only cell and gene therapy solutions provider with customizable services to support the entire end-to-end cell therapy supply chain. As part of the National Marrow Donor Program^® (NMDP)/Be The Match^®, Be The Match BioTherapies has sourced, collected and delivered cells from more than 100,000 volunteer allogeneic donors around the world for time-critical cellular therapies. They have extensive experience providing cellular source material consented for research, clinical and commercial use. Throughout the past 35+ years, Be The Match BioTherapies has developed and continually enhanced their cell collection network and proven cell therapy supply chain infrastructure. The teams are responsible for more than 6,500 time-sensitive cell therapy shipments per year. Through the CIBMTR^® (Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research^®), Be The Match BioTherapies provides long-term follow-up tracking for the first two FDA-approved CAR-T therapies.

CIBMTR^® (Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research^®)

The Center for International Blood and Marrow Transplant Research is a nonprofit research collaboration between the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP)/Be The Match, in Minneapolis, and the Medical College of Wisconsin, in Milwaukee. The CIBMTR collaborates with the global scientific community to increase survival and enrich quality of life for patients. The CIBMTR facilitates critical observational and interventional research through scientific and statistical expertise, a large network of centers, and a unique database of long-term clinical data for more than 600,000 people who have received hematopoietic cell transplantation and other cellular therapies. Learn more at cibmtr.org or follow the CIBMTR on Facebook, LinkedIn, or Twitter @CIBMTR.

Media Contacts
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Bonnie Quintanilla, bonnie@clarityqst.com
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