Despite a half a million people left without electricity, Gateway Medical Research powers on

St. Charles, Missouri (December 1, 2006) —With the first winter storm of the year disabling the power for more than 500,000 people in Missouri and Illinois, many activities came to a freezing halt on Friday with the exception of clinical study activities at Gateway Medical Research.

City officials estimated that most of the affected areas would be without power for at least a few days. Fortunately, Gateway Medical's facility was left untouched by the ice storm's power outage and housed more than 500 study participants for their 12 clinical research studies conducted over the weekend.

Many study participants assumed that the clinical studies would be also cancelled due to the weather, but to their surprise Gateway Medical was fully functional. Even in the event of a complete power loss, Gateway Medical has a back up generator system that could power the entire 105,000 square foot facility, including the 10 clinical units, labs, sleeping quarters and in-house kitchen.

Gateway Medical gave study participants the option to arrive prior to their study check-in time and relax in the fully-functional facility. Most of the study participants were able make the journey to Gateway Medical in time for their study check-in; but there were a few who required additional considerations, such as paid taxi fare.

“We'd like to thank our dedicated participants and staff. Most of our staff works on a per diem basis and many of them have children at home. With all the schools being closed because of the storm, these staff could have easily not come in for their shifts, but instead pulled together and we were able to run all of our 12 studies with a full set of staff,” said Steve Unwin , Gateway Medical Research's COO.

Gateway Medical Research a Cetero Research company is a clinical research site, specializing in testing of pharmaceuticals. In July 2006, Gateway joined Cetero Research, specialists in early clinical research and bioanalysis.