Building a European Laboratory Network for Clinical Trials on Anti-Infectives

LAB-Net, COMBACTE’s laboratory network, has established itself as an indispensable network for clinical trials in infectious diseases that takes crucial part across 30 clinical studies both within and  outside of the COMBACTE consortium. Since its official launch in January 2013, LAB-Net has expanded more than three-fold and in Q2 2021 it encompasses 872 labs across 41 countries in Europe. In addition, LAB-Net has crossed the European borders and collaborates with more than 300 laboratories spread across the globe. Such a close collaboration with partners within COMBACTE and beyond tremendously contributed to the growth of LAB-Net throughout the years. A sustainable infrastructure beyond COMBACTE-NET is needed to ensure the smooth handover and continuity of the achievements made in the project. Therefore, the existing clinical and laboratory networks CLIN-Net and LAB-Net will be at the core of ECRAID, and will continue to expand and play an important role in our future.

The ultimate objective by the end of LAB-Net, scheduled for October 2023, is to establish a fully operational European laboratory network to support antibacterial drug development via various clinical trials on infectious diseases. Continuing its ultimate goal of maintaining a well-trained and experienced laboratory network for clinical trials, LAB-Net is and will be contributing to the acceleration of anti-infective clinical studies in the near future.