Lowering the patient burden in clinical trials

An estimated one in five clinical trials is terminated early, up to 90 per cent fail to hit recruitment targets on time and many investigator sites struggle to enroll enough patients. These are the dispiriting metrics of pharma ’s sub-optimal achievements in trials.  Broadening trial participation and helping ensure participants stick with a trial by lowering the patient burden is one of the keys to moving the dial on the figures above.  The ongoing pandemic is helping here by sharpening pharma ’s focus on having efficient patient recruitment and trial processes in place to make sure they stay the course.  Pharma has accelerated efforts in other ways to address the issue, including relaxing eligibility criteria, simplifying consenting processes and ensuring consistent and clear communication, but something has still been missing. According to Dr Anthony Yanni, senior vice president and global head of patient centricity at Astellas, pharma has never really truly understood patient expectations. “Astellas recognised this,” he says, “and set up a team to address it.”  The patient partnership team, which sits within the company ’s patient-centricity division, has one function: to create meaningful relationships globally with patient groups. This enables research teams in the company to develop a deep understanding of the characteristics, needs and perceived value of different patient groups and then to align that with pa tient characteristics that physician...
Source: EyeForPharma - Category: Pharmaceuticals Authors: Source Type: news