Our mission

Accelerating drug development timelines to help save the lives of patients today.

World-class Scientific Advisory

Work with Richmond Pharmacology as your trusted and reliable research partner.

Clinical excellence from design to delivery

Take your asset from first-in-human to proof-of-concept in under one year with Richmond Pharmacology. Our long-term partnerships with our international sponsors have led to the completion of over 500 early phase studies.

We have helped to deliver 30 medicines to market.

Over
Early Phase Studies

Our founders are influential clinical experts who actively lead each study. Alongside our team of senior drug development experts, they create adaptive and integrated protocols – enabling faster decision making and reducing drug development timelines.

Together we ensure the quality, integrity, and accuracy of your trial.

We are a full service CRO

Delivering all our specialist services at our purpose-built hospital-style facility in London, next to Guy’s Hospital. As our patient offering expands, so do our facilities. We have dedicated patient wards meeting the highest patient safety standards and ensuring our participants have a comfortable stay.

We're MHRA accredited

We are an MHRA accredited Phase I unit. Our trials adhere to the highest clinical, ethical and safety standards.

We exceed the basic regulatory GCP standards to ensure the patients in our First-In-Human studies are safe, comfortable, and confident in our abilities to handle medical emergencies.

The clinical unit is in the heart of London with easy access to mainline train stations and airports, making it the ideal location to attract research volunteers.

Access to over
Volunteers

Richmond Pharmacology’s volunteer database houses individuals from a broad demographic spectrum and a wide variety of patient populations across common to rare diseases. The database grows by 1000 to 2000 volunteers each month with a typical 70/30 split between healthy volunteers and patients.

Committed to clinical excellence for two decades

Richmond Pharmacology was one of the last CROs to be founded in the UK. The vision was to create a new clinical study infrastructure: a unit nested in a hospital setting – at St George’s University of London – allowing clinicians to participate in high-end studies.  The profits were reinvested in the company or used to fund academic research.

Twenty years later, and the model has not changed – we recently established the Richmond Research Institute to provide a formal setting for academic studies in under-researched areas.

Our work has evolved from small molecules to monoclonal antibodies, RNA therapeutics and most recently gene editing.
A brief history of Richmond Pharmacology

August 2001

Richmond Pharmacology was incorporated. Our first clinical facility was at Atkinson Morley’s Hospital, Wimbledon.

November 2003

Moved to St George’s Hospital, Tooting.

Our new 32 bed unit was one of the only commercial Phase I CROs with facilities located within the same site as both the Teaching Hospital and Medical School.

August 2004

We developed longstanding partnerships with Japanese pharmaceutical companies.

May 2005

We opened a new facility at Croydon University Hospital, increasing our total bed capacity to 84 beds.

Richmond Pharmacology became the UK’s first CRO with a dedicated Phase I and clinical trials unit to be based in two acute NHS Teaching Hospitals.

August 2006

We registered over 60,000 volunteers in our clinical trials database.

January 2002

Launched our volunteer recruitment brand, Trials4us.

June 2004

The total number of volunteers registered reached 25,000 in just 2 years.

September 2004

We recruited our 30,000th clinical trial volunteer.

December 2004

Our dedicated Japanese recruitment team was established.

April 2006

We conducted our 100th clinical research study.

October 2008

First early phase CRO in the UK to receive MHRA Standard and Supplementary Accreditation.

April 2010

Richmond Pharmacology's Volunteer Database Exceeds 100,000 Volunteer Registration Records.

November 2011

We invested in our ECG equipment to provide state of the art data monitoring services.

November 2013

A volunteer panel the size of a city.
Our volunteer database reaches 150,000.

November 2014

Richmond Pharmacology embarked on our first RNA interference study with Alnylam Pharmaceuticals to study a treatment for hyper-cholesterolaemia. This marked our moved from small molecule studies to biologics.  

July 2015

200,000 volunteers were registered with Trials4Us.

February 2016

We supported Alnylam Pharmaceuticals with their Phase I study to develop a treatment for PH1 using small interfering RNA.

March 2011

First formal Japanese Bridging TQT analysis conducted.

May 2013

Conducted our 200th clinical trial.

May 2014

Richmond Pharmacology collaborated with Hisamitsu Pharmaceutical to study a transdermal anti-psychotic patch to treat adults with schizophrenia. The first patient with Schizophrenia dosed in a 45+ day residential stay study at our pharmacology unit.

April 2015

Richmond Pharmacology and Alexion embark on a Phase I study to find a treatment for Paroxysmal Nocturnal Hemoglobinuria using a complement inhibitor.

June 2016

Our first collaboration with the National Amyloidosis Centre (Royal Free Hospital) saw us dose our 19th amyloid patient for a multi-centre trial. Trials4us become the largest recruiting site globally.

February 2017

We conducted our 300th clinical trial.

March 2018

Richmond Pharmacology becomes an Immediate Life Support Resuscitation Council Course Centre.

October 2019

Hisamitsu Pharmaceutical’s transdermal anti-psychotic patch was approved for use in Japan.

January 2020

Richmond Research Institute was established.

November 2020

Marking a milestone for gene editing. Richmond Pharmacology partner with Intellia Therapeutics to trial pioneering Nobel Prize-winning gene editing therapy.

August 2021

Richmond Pharmacology celebrates its 20th anniversary.

March 2017

We moved to our current clinical research facility on the site of Guy's Hospital at London Bridge.

December 2018

Following the Phase I study at Richmond Pharmacology in 2015 Alexion received FDA approval for Ultomiris, a long acting C5 inhibitor used to treat Paroxysmal Nocturnal Hemoglobinuria.

November 2019

250,000 volunteers were registered with Trials4us.

January 2020

Richmond Pharmacology supporting clinical facilities in Nicaragua.

July 2020

Alnylam Pharmaceuticals received marketing authorisation by MHRA for Lumasiran, an RNA therapeutic tested by Richmond Pharmacology.

December 2020

Alnylam Pharmaceuticals registered Inclisiran in the EU. Richmond Pharmacology’s first RNA therapeutic study.

August 2021

Latest news

How Does Social Time Contribute to a Positive Workplace Culture?

March 13, 2023
Read the blog by Richmond Pharmacology’s Chair of the Social Committee and Head of Marketing, Elizabeth Romano about how being social improves organisational culture and embeds the core values.
Read more

Employee Well-Being: A Commitment that Defines Richmond

October 2, 2023
Dr. Junko Ono, the Occupational Support Manager at Richmond Pharmacology provides her insights on fostering a positive work environment.
Read more

Events

ISA Symposium 2024

29-30 May 2024 
We will be attending the XIX International Symposium on Amyloidosis, taking place in Rochester, Minesota
View event