DURHAM – The business of clinical trials and patient recruitment is changing quickly, and Velocity Clinical Research is hoping to capitalize on that.

This week, the Durham-based company disclosed that it recently acquired its first three research sites.

Among them: Clinical Research Institute of Southern Oregon (CRISOR) of Medford, Oregon; New Horizons Clinical Research (NHCR) of Cincinnati, Ohio; and MD Clinical of Hallandale Beach, Florida.

Apparently, this is just the beginning.

“We aim to become one of the leading site organizations in the world,” said Velocity’s president and CEO Dr. G. Paul Evans. “That obviously implies a lot of site growth in the next five years.”

Velocity Clinical Research CEO Dr. G. Paul Evans .

The company is actively pursuing additional acquisitions and is even open to starting new sites, said Evans.

It also plans to focus heavily on patient recruitment.

“The patient recruitment model is changing; old recruitment methods are failing. Nearly 30 percent of investigator sites in the U.S. fail to enroll a patient. By actively managing patient recruitment with precision and focusing on the patient, we are positioning Velocity to be the industry leader in setting – and surpassing – sponsor expectations,” he said.

More than $20M in equity

The news comes after its firm, VCR Holdings, raised $19,562,507 in equity, according to a recent filing.

Evans said the money raised went directly to financing the purchase of the sites, but it’s not the total funds raised so far.

“We aren’t revealing this information,” he told WRAL TechWire.

“What I can reveal is that we have acquired very successful and profitable sites so the company is not reliant on investors for working capital, but can invest its profits in the further development of the company.”

Founded in 2017, Velocity is the brainchild of Chapel Hill-based Bruce Tomason, the former CEO of One Call Medical, Alterna, and Copernicus. He now serves as executive chairman at Velocity.

Evans joined the team in October last year, relocating from the UK to Durham. He previously served as corporate vice president of Global Site Solutions at PAREXEL and vice president, Global Site Management at IQVIA, among others.

Evans said the company decided to make Durham its headquarters, in part, to be close to its target client base, biopharma companies and contract research organizations (CROs).

“There is also a highly skilled and experienced life science workforce in the Triangle that we can tap into,” he said.

At present, the company has a total of around 75 employees across all sites and its corporate office, and there are plans to take on new hires in the near future, including a director of Quality and additional members of the finance team.

“We expect to announce the details of our executive management team in the next 6-8 weeks,” he said.