Making the Connection
How can the tens of thousands of clinical trials happening around the world recruit the millions of patients who could be participating in them? What resources are available to connect one to the other?
Only a small percentage of patients who could be matched to a study ever get to be part of it. While there are many reasons for this situation, one of them is very simple, according to an article by Ben Adams in Fierce Biotech. It seems that potential patients have no idea what clinical trials are going on near them or how they can get involved in the process.
Icon, a biopharma service company and CRO, is hoping to bridge that knowledge chasm. It has developed an online service that can offer patients study-specific information, including the ways in which they can get in on their nearest trial site, the article explained.
This platform helps recruiters for clinical trials. As Icon explained, the solution supplements patient recruitment outreach by sites and increases visibility of potential study participants for sponsors and sites. Patient recruitment specialists work with sponsors to develop outreach programs that incorporate the right mix of digital channels, traditional methods and patient advocacy partnerships to attract patients to a study branded website hosted on the platform.
The company described the site as an “easy-to-navigate, user-friendly interface” that guides the patient to new and ongoing studies in his or her particular indication. A pre-qualification questionnaire helps to determine if the study is a right fit for that patient. The service establishes connection with the site, and the patient can decide whether to contact the site or ask to be contacted for pre-screening, which, according to the article, boosts “visibility and connectivity.”
According to EB McLindon, senior vice president for site and patient solutions, “Access to patients continues to be the biggest challenge for sponsors, impacting speed to market and overall drug development costs. We have used our understanding of patients gained through managing thousands of trials to develop this patient engagement platform and ease the burden on sites and patients. This will increase the predictability and speed of patient recruitment.”
Since its inception in Dublin, Ireland, in 1990, Icon’s mission has been to help its clients to accelerate the development of drugs and devices to save lives and improve quality of life. According to the company website, Icon does this “by delivering best in class information, solutions and performance, with an unyielding focus on quality at all times.” Icon offers a full range of consulting, development and commercialization services from a global network of offices in 37 countries. The company focuses its innovation on the factors that are critical to its clients — reducing time to market, reducing cost and increasing quality — and its global team of experts has extensive experience in a broad range of therapeutic areas.
