DIRECTORS at a Scottish lifesciences company are to double their organisation's size and workforce over the next year after winning a multi-million-pound contract to conduct potentially groundbreaking clinical trials.

QCTR, which is based at Stirling University's Innovation Park, bid successfully to carry out Phase III trials of a new drug that offers the potential to treat Huntington's disease, a rare but incurable neurological genetic disorder.

The condition can cause uncontrollable movements, stiffness, slurred speech, lack of co-ordination and severe mobility problems.

The deal between QCTR and the Scandinavian pharmaceutical company NeuroSearch involves collecting and analysing data from more than 400 patients in eight countries across Europe who have agreed to participate in the trials.

The Stirling company will recruit 10 new clinical research professionals over the next year, taking its total workforce to 20. “Winning this contract is a major step forward in the development of our company,” said Susan McGoldrick, the co-founder and managing director of QCTR.

She added that her team had to beat off a stiff international challenge to win the business. “We operate in a global marketplace where the competition is intense. We are building a high-value, knowledge-driven team here in Stirling that can compete with the best in the world.”

QCTR was founded by McGoldrick and Fiona Duffy two years ago when the pair left Laxdale, a Stirling-based neuroscience development company, following its takeover by Amarin Corporation.

The business started from an incubator unit on Stirling University's Innovation Park, where it is still based. It has now grown to the point where it requires three times the original space, with the potential for further growth in future.

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