Christopher ("Topher") Kinsella, CEO of Watershed Therapeutics Testimonial

Christopher ("Topher") Kinsella, CEO of Watershed Therapeutics, describes his experience selecting clinical research sites for his first-in-human study in Barranquilla, Colombia.

"I’m trying to develop breakthrough medical technologies in the United States, but everything has been incredibly expensive and slow. Colombia is a much more dynamic, fast-moving, and reasonable development place. It’s filled with physicians and nurses who have had training in the United States, and the medical equipment is the same as in the United States. Colombia is a younger, faster, healthier version of doing things there.

I was doing the experiments in a laboratory in the United States, and I was loudly complaining about my problem that I could not find a place to conduct a clinical trial with good support and fast and good customer service. One of my colleagues mentioned that they had heard about a place in Barranquilla, Colombia, run by a company called “bioaccess.” I talked to people in Panama, Paraguay, Mexico, Israel, India, and Australia, and you sent an email and talked to them; maybe you will hear back in three or four days.

bioaccess responded the very day I sent my email. And every time I talked to them, they were immediate in terms of being helpful. As I got to know them, I realized they were incredibly professional. It was a straightforward decision to come and do my clinical trial here in Barranquilla, Colombia.

Colombia is full of incredibly professional and kind people; the facilities in the hospital are the same as I would use in the United States, and the patients and the physicians are very excited about being a part of a study that will make new medications and medical devices. The best part about coming to Colombia is that it is a place filled with incredibly friendly and helpful people. The facilities are identical to what I would use in the United States. The hospitals are the same. Physicians and nurses have often trained in the United States. So, the experience is perfect; it is easy to get here and run a clinical trial.

I tell my colleagues to reach out to bioaccess. They should fly down, and they should see for themselves that the facilities here are everything that they could want back in the United States, but in a way that is much faster, much more convenient, and much more helpful than they would get in the United States.

The professionalism and the speed of communication that I've gotten to experience working here in Barranquilla, Colombia, has been greater than what we do in my company. I have learned to respond faster to other people and to have better documentation because the interaction here was excellent."