Competition for clinical trial enrolment hotting up, says Citeline study
This article was originally published in Scrip
Executive Summary
Competition to enrol patients in clinical studies is intensifying as sponsors seek greater numbers of patients and as the number of trials initiated increases, concludes a study published in the latest issue of the journal, GCPj. The study, "Hitting the Target", analyses the number of industry-sponsored Phase II and III trials started between 2000 and 2007 together with their enrolment targets. It looks at the major therapeutic trial activity areas of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), breast cancer, type 2 diabetes, thrombosis, asthma and affective disorders. The study's authors found a significant growth in the number of patients wanted for each trial and in the number of trials being started for high incidence diseases, such as breast and lung cancers, type 2 diabetes and thrombosis. "The end result is fierce competition to attract and enrol patients," says study author Susan Danheiser of the clinical trial database, Citeline. A review of Phase III trials initiated in NSCLC showed that more complex trial designs contributed to the overall growth in trial size, says the report. This is also likely to be true of type 2 diabetes and thrombosis, it says.