HAMMERSMITH MEDICINES RESEARCH LTD

Their core work

Hammersmith Medicines Research is a London-based clinical research organisation (CRO) specialising in oncology. Their work centers on cancer diagnostics and patient management — specifically developing tests and tools that help clinicians decide how aggressively to treat a patient, rather than defaulting to surgery or chemotherapy. In platinDx they contributed to predicting patient sensitivity to platinum-based chemotherapy drugs, enabling personalised treatment selection. In PRISAR2, their focus shifted toward active surveillance of rectal cancer, supporting the clinical case for a "watch and wait" strategy as an alternative to surgery.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

Their 2015 entry into H2020 was through platinDx, a project predicting chemotherapy drug efficacy — focused on treatment selection before therapy begins. By 2020, their focus had moved downstream in the care pathway: PRISAR2 is about monitoring patients after initial diagnosis to avoid surgery altogether, using imaging and surveillance protocols. The shift is from "which drug works best" to "do we even need to treat aggressively at all" — a meaningful clinical evolution reflecting growing interest in conservative cancer management approaches.

Hammersmith Medicines Research appears to be moving toward clinical decision support tools that reduce overtreatment in cancer — a growing priority across European oncology research and health systems under budget pressure.

How they like to work

They have participated exclusively as consortium members across both projects, never as coordinator — consistent with a specialist CRO that provides clinical expertise or trial infrastructure rather than leading scientific programmes. Despite only two projects, they accumulated 25 unique partners across 8 countries, suggesting they join large, multi-partner consortia rather than small bilateral collaborations. This makes them a reliable specialist contributor who brings clinical credibility to academic or industry-led consortia without competing for the lead role.

With 25 consortium partners across 8 countries from just two projects, Hammersmith participates in sizeable European research networks. Their geographic spread spans multiple EU member states plus the UK, reflecting their engagement in pan-European health research programmes.

What sets them apart

As a private SME clinical research organisation based in London, Hammersmith Medicines Research occupies a niche between academic hospital units and large CROs — small enough to engage meaningfully with research consortia, but with the clinical infrastructure and regulatory familiarity of a professional trials organisation. Their dual exposure to both chemotherapy personalisation and surgical avoidance strategies positions them well for consortia working at the intersection of diagnostics, oncology, and health economics. For a consortium building around cancer management or diagnostics, they bring real-world clinical context that purely academic partners typically lack.

Highlights from their portfolio

• PRISAR2
  A 5-year MSCA-RISE project (2020–2025) on proactive rectal cancer monitoring as a surgical alternative, making it the organisation's most substantial and technically specific engagement with clinical oncology tools.
• platinDx
  Their earliest H2020 entry, addressing a high-impact clinical problem — predicting platinum drug response — that sits at the core of personalised oncology and companion diagnostics.