Learner Profile
Paul Hamilton
Employer
Pacific Clinical Research Network
HMX Course
Pharmacology – Clinical Drug Development
Paul Hamilton, MD, serves as the clinical director of early-phase research at Pacific Clinical Research Network, a company dedicated to expanding patient access to clinical trials in New Zealand. In this interview, he shares his insights into the Clinical Drug Development course, highlighting its most intriguing aspects and discussing its value to his work.
What motivated you to take the HMX Pro course, Clinical Drug Development?
There are limited vocational post-graduate qualifications for clinical pharmacology in New Zealand, making it more challenging for doctors wishing to explore this field to gain the requisite experience to forge a career in research. By completing the HMX course for Clinical Drug Development, I aimed to consolidate my knowledge from industry experience and improve my ability to offer recommendations for sub-investigators.
How did this course complement your previous studies?
I have been a practicing medic for 18 years, with a tertiary degree in physiology and pharmacology. Most of my working life has been in industry-sponsored clinical trials, where I have been an investigator on more than 300 studies.
Some of the highlights of this time include pivotal trials in the development of direct-acting antivirals for Hepatitis C, like the groundbreaking ‘Electron’ study for Sofosbuvir, advancements in treating PNH patients with Danicopan from first-in-human studies to transformative later phases, and participation in the world’s first in-vivo CRISPR-Cas9 program.
Can you share a little about your work and day-to-day responsibilities?
As clinical director, I oversee the award and deployment of phase I-II clinical trials, work as principal investigator across various studies, and manage a sub-investigator team. I am part of a multidisciplinary team of clinical and research scientists at a facility that includes inpatient and outpatient beds, an on-site pharmacy, and laboratory processing.
What parts of your learning experience with HMX did you find the most impactful?
I found the real-world examples of clinical trials, presented by top investigators who had been part of them, to be the most exciting course content. The support structure from tutors was also excellent.
There was a lot of helpful content that I applied daily in my role… I will recommend HMX to my colleagues who want to get ahead in research!