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Joshua Schultz at PAREXEL International looks at the patient recruitment challenge, examining leveraging data assets, analysis tools and contingency strategies in a bid to improve recruitment performance
Patient recruitment is one of the biggest challenges facing the pharmaceutical industry today. With a growing number of potential new drugs entering clinical development, the competition for qualified patients is intensifying. Shortfalls in key recruitment milestones such as ‘last patient in’ (LPI) can create costly delays at a time when sponsors are under intense pressure to reduce expenses and bring new products to market as quickly as possible.
Faced with this challenge, trial sponsors need to accurately predict recruitment rates, increase recruiting efficiency, and respond proactively to changes in the trial environment once patient recruiting is underway. Yet many companies do not have the necessary data assets, analytical tools or management procedures available in order to improve recruiting performance and quickly adapt to the unexpected recruitment issues that occur during most trials.
By accessing the right data and implementing the appropriate technologies and processes, trial sponsors can more precisely forecast, monitor and manage patient recruitment – allowing them to improve recruiting performance and reduce the chance of delays that can add millions of dollars to the cost of a trial. |
