In anticipation of expanding its operations globally, North Carolina-based Velocity Clinical Research, an integrated clinical trial site, announced the hiring of three new executives.
Joining the company are Dominic Clavell as executive vice president in Europe, Erin Williams as vice president of contracts and regulatory and Charles-Hubert Devaux as Senior Director of patient recruitment, according to a press release.
"Velocity is carving out a new category of pharma services," Velocity Clinical Research Chief Executive and President Dr. G. Paul Evans said. "The clinical trials site landscape will look very different in the next 12 months and Velocity is well placed to take advantage of this consolidation in the market. When U.S. companies try to expand into Europe, they tend to do this remotely, attempting to manage operations from the States. We're breaking the mold by putting boots on the ground."
The company did not release additional details of when it will begin expansion into the European market.
"The experience of COVID has markedly changed attitudes in Europe toward commercial clinical research, which is why this expansion in Europe is so timely," Clavell said. "We recognize that Europe poses a different set of challenges to the United States because of public healthcare structures, hence why a physical presence on the continent is paramount."
Velocity is headquartered in Durham, North Carolina.
"I'm looking forward to bringing my experience from previous roles held in France and Germany at a pivotal time for Velocity's European strategy," Devaux said. "The past 12 months has demonstrated the power that speeding up patient recruitment to trials has, particularly as the industry did some outstanding work, recruiting hundreds of thousands of people to COVID vaccine trials. But there is still a lot of work to do. We have to get better as an industry at engaging minority populations and I look forward to leading that for Velocity."