Phase I to II clinical trials

Early phase clinical development

From first dose through proof of concept in neuroscience, infectious diseases and vaccines, and cardiometabolic diseases.

Every phase built to earn the next.

Meet our experts

Early phase CRO services

Build on answers with speed and certainty

No one has eighteen months to spend on a study that can’t answer its own question.

So the decisions that matter most, from dose and population to endpoint and timing, get settled while they can still change. Our medical monitors, clinical pharmacologists, epidemiologists, and biostatisticians work on your protocol before it’s fixed.

Much of our early phase work happens where a clinical pharmacology unit can’t take you: Phase Ib studies in patients, proof-of-concept trials in rare and hard-to-reach populations, and vaccine studies where the disease circulates. As a phase I and phase II CRO, AKEURA takes you from first dose to the data that decides your next phase.

Almost all of it sits in our three therapeutic areas, on purpose. Alzheimer’s disease, a vaccine, and a metabolic indication are different problems, and our people have lived with each long enough to design for the differences.

You’re covered for every phase

And when you move to late phase, the team moves with you

First dose to proof of concept, many times over

Early phase experience across neuroscience, infectious diseases and vaccines, and cardiometabolic diseases.

  • 100+

    Phase I and I/II trials, from first dose

  • 160+

    Phase II trials, to proof of concept

  • 28k+

    participants in early phase trials

  • 40+

    countries, from single site to multinational

Early-phase trials with deep therapeutic expertise

Neuroscience

Some of the hardest indications in medicine, run by people who have spent their careers in them. We know the endpoints, the raters and the sites that actually deliver.

140+ studies Learn more

Infectious diseases and vaccines

Respiratory and tropical infections, antimicrobial resistance, and global vaccine studies, run by teams on the ground where infectious diseases circulate. We read the epidemiology before we write the protocol.

400+ studies Learn more

Cardiometabolic diseases

Event-driven outcomes trials and the tough-to-recruit metabolic indications: obesity, diabetes, MASH, and lipid disorders. We keep the participants we recruit.

100+ studies Learn more

Six things that can go wrong in early phase, and how we approach them

These are the calls we get most, and none of them scare us.

Experience means we see problems coming. Tenacity gets you through the ones that arrive anyway.

1

The first study answers the wrong question.

Our approach

If the dose range, endpoints, or population are wrong, safety data is all you get.

Our clinical pharmacologists, medical monitors, and biostatisticians settle those with you before the protocol is fixed.

2

Healthy volunteers are easy. Your study isn't.

Our approach

Rare CNS conditions, enriched phenotypes, vaccine studies that need incidence: our epidemiologists find where eligible participants are before site selection starts.

On a recent Alzheimer’s Phase Ib study, that groundwork helped secure approval in under two months.

3

Timelines slip away in start-up.

Our approach

Dedicated start-up resource, and regulatory teams who have filed in your region before.

On a current Phase I Alzheimer’s program, the submission went in ahead of schedule and sites initiated three months after final protocol.

4

The next cohort is waiting on someone’s inbox.

Our approach

One data flow, in-house medical monitors who know your medicine, and a safety review cadence agreed before the first dose.

Decisions keep pace with your cohorts, not the other way around.

5

A big-pharma workload on a biotech headcount.

Our approach

Borrow ours. One biotech was running three vaccine trials across Europe, the UK, and Australia with no safety function, so we embedded ours: validated databases, vaccine safety specialists, and one oversight model.

Real expert capacity from day one.

6

Phase I is never just Phase I.

Our approach

Your earliest clinical data ends up in the Phase III submission and the payer dossier.

Our clinical development and real-world evidence specialists plan early phase with both in view, so nothing has to be redone later.

How we tackle early phase

We don’t own a Phase I unit.
That’s by design.

It’s why sponsors bring us the early studies a unit can’t run on its own. Conduct runs through qualified Phase I units and specialist site networks chosen for your study, not to fill beds. For vaccines, that includes established partnerships with specialist vaccine trial centers in Europe that design and run Phase I work themselves.

What stays with us is accountability for your data: study design, regulatory strategy, medical monitoring, safety oversight and escalation, data management, PK/PD analysis, and the clinical study report.

The model is working today, across our current early phase studies in neuroscience and vaccines.

If your program needs a specific capability, such as a challenge model, a Schedule I license, an imaging protocol, or a particular regulatory footprint, we’ll build the site strategy around it. The earlier you tell us, the better it gets.

Every study run by the people you chose

The team that wins your bid runs your early phase, then your next phase.

Erik van Zandbergen

Erik van Zandbergen

Senior Vice President, Operations

Overseeing global clinical operations, drawing on a pharmacy background and 15+ years of CRO business development leadership.

Kristy Nichols

Kristy Nichols

Senior Vice President, Neuroscience

Heading the neuroscience business, backed by 17 years running her own CRO and global biometrics leadership in CNS research.

Laurence De Moerlooze

Laurence De Moerlooze

Senior Vice President, Infectious Diseases and Vaccines

20+ years of sponsor-side vaccine development, from licensed vaccines to Zika, now leading infectious disease and vaccine programs.

Bronwyn Secourgeon

Bronwyn Secourgeon

Associate Vice President, Cardiometabolic Diseases

Heading the cardiometabolic business, drawing on nearly 20 years of business development across Europe and Asia-Pacific.

Lieza Exalto, MD, PhD

Lieza Exalto, MD, PhD

Head of Medical and Scientific Strategy, Neuroscience

Shaping medical and scientific strategy for neuroscience studies, drawing on expertise in dementia and neurodegeneration.

Alison Ingram

Alison Ingram

Vice President, Quality and Compliance

25+ years in pharmaceutical quality and compliance, now leading the quality management system across global operations.

Early-phase CRO services

What we deliver in early phase

  • Study design and protocol development
  • Regulatory strategy and submissions: IND, CTA, and CTIS
  • Ascending-dose (SAD/MAD) trials, through partner units
  • Phase Ib and Phase IIa proof-of-concept trials
  • Early studies in patient populations
  • Adaptive and seamless Phase I/II designs
  • Human challenge (CHIM) studies, with a specialist partner unit
  • PK/PD modeling and analysis
  • Biomarker and imaging strategy
  • Epidemiological feasibility
  • Site selection and start-up
  • Cold chain and sample logistics
  • Medical monitoring and safety oversight
  • DSMB coordination and management
  • Rater training and clinical assessment setup
  • Data management and biostatistics
  • Pharmacovigilance, including embedded models
  • Medical writing and clinical study reports

Wherever your early data leads

Late phase and real-world evidence specialists, ready to carry your program from proof of concept through approval and beyond.

Late phase clinical development

Phase IIb to Phase IV trials at scale, built to carry your program through approval and beyond

Real-world evidence studies

Regulatory-grade post-approval safety and effectiveness studies, led by RWE specialists who stay within reach

Frequently asked questions

Answers to your questions about early phase clinical development

Early phase clinical development covers the first studies of a new medicine in people, from ascending-dose trials to Phase IIa proof of concept. Its job is to establish safety, dose, and an early signal so you can decide whether and how to move forward.

AKEURA is an early phase CRO running Phase I and Phase II trials in neuroscience, infectious diseases and vaccines, and cardiometabolic diseases.

No, by design. Conduct runs through qualified units and specialist networks chosen because they fit your study, not because we own them. Design, regulatory strategy, medical monitoring, safety oversight, data management, and PK/PD analysis stay with us.

Yes, and it’s where most of our early phase work happens. We run early studies in rare neurological conditions, enriched metabolic populations, and vaccine studies that need disease incidence. Our epidemiologists find where eligible participants are before sites are selected.

Yes. AKEURA runs Phase I and Phase I/II vaccine trials with specialist vaccine trial centers in Europe and site networks across Africa. When a challenge study is the fastest way to de-risk a field efficacy decision, we work with a specialist human challenge partner.

IND-enabling studies are the nonclinical toxicology, pharmacology, and CMC work required before regulators allow human trials. We don’t run the animal work. We pick up at the IND or CTA itself: regulatory strategy, protocol design, and everything from first dose onward.

Our regulatory teams file INDs with the FDA and CTAs through the EU CTIS portal, and can run both in parallel. Strategy, submission, and agency interaction are handled by people who have filed in your target regions before.

Either. Some sponsors come for one study and stay for the program. Others hand us early phase end to end. The design conversation is the same either way.

Connect with an expert

Tell us what you need.
Your message goes to the team that handles your study.

Name
Erik van Zandbergen

Erik van Zandbergen

Senior Vice President, Operations

Overseeing global clinical operations, drawing on a pharmacy background and 15+ years of CRO business development leadership.