New York City institutions are as eager as those in any other city to run clinical trials, but the competition is fierce. To help local institutions, Montefiore Medical Center, New York University School of Medicine, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, North Shore-Long Island Jewish Health System, and Saint Vincents Catholic Medical Centers founded the Biomedical Research Alliance of New York (BRANY) in 1998. Each contributed $1.5 million in creating the group, whose goal is to attract pharmaceutical trials to the New York area.

So far, says BRANY CEO Eileen Hilton, the effort has paid off. Trial revenue at individual participating institutions has grown by anywhere from 10% to 100%. To date, BRANY has facilitated 699 clinical trials for clients including AstraZeneca, Pharmacia & Upjohn, Merck & Co., Sanofi, Eli Lilly and Company, Amgen, and numerous contract research organizations, and it is currently involved in 400 ongoing trials.

With a staff of 30, BRANY streamlines clinical trial administration by offering trial sponsors free legal services, an independent Institutional Review Board with representatives from several organizations, Institutional Biosafety Committee services, budget planning, educational training, monitoring, and site selection. "We reduce the time it takes to begin a trial from about 3 months to 1 month," says Hilton. With block-buster drugs losing up to $1 million for every day they're not on the market, according to Pharmaceutical Researchers and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), the savings can be considerable.

After the initial investment in 1998, "none of BRANY's affiliates pay any fees to belong, and the investigators get all [trial] fees minus what they pay for institutional overhead," says Hilton. The consortium operates on its initial $7.5 million endowment from the five initial institutions, and does not expect to need to raise more funds in the foreseeable future.

The consortium continues to grow, and is expanding beyond New York. There are now 149 affiliates in 19 states. "We have strong contacts, which means that often, we hear about cutting-edge clinical trials first," says Hilton.