Making drugs for MND-SMART

The drugs used in MND-SMART are specifically manufactured for the trial. They are made in Yorkshire at Huddersfield Pharmacy Specials (HPS), which is part of the Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust.

We need to have the drugs specially made because the trial is "double blind". This means neither the participants nor the research teams know who is taking which drug. To keep the drug identify unknown, the trial drugs and placebo must look and taste the same as each other, as well as be packaged in identical boxes with the same labels.

The drugs start as 'raw ingredients' and a carefully controlled procedure is followed to dissolve them into liquids, bottle them up and package them. HPS also carries out important safety tests to ensure the drugs are up to standard. Next the drugs are sent to our trial sites across the UK when required.

The whole process then starts again with the next batch of drugs being made.

Fun facts:

• To date over 7,000 bottles of trial drugs have been made - that's over 2,100 litres!
• There have been more than 400 deliveries to the trial sites across the UK.

Huddersfield Pharmacy Specials are incredibly proud of being involved in such a fantastic clinical trial for motor neuron disease.

Related links

Huddersfield Pharmacy Specials (external website)