Clinical trials
Future of clinical trials: is mobile the answer?
An independent review of clinical trials by Lord James O’Shaughnessy is due to report imminently. Helen Jones looks at how taking trials into the heart of communities can play a pivotal role.
World Clinical Trials Day on 20 May is a symbolic moment in the healthcare calendar – a time for the clinical research community to reflect on all that has been accomplished, thanks to trials and the people behind them. Remarkably, it dates back to 1747, when James Lind started what is often considered the first randomised clinical trial, aboard a ship. Nearly 280 years later, World Clinical Trials
Day carries a special resonance in 2023, as we await the outcome of the review by Lord O’Shaughnessy, the former Life Sciences and Innovation Minister, and a board member of Health Data Research UK. One cannot help but conclude that this is a crucial juncture to resolve key challenges in conducting commercial clinical trials across the UK, and to ultimately deliver the best possible results for patients. With the NHS continuing to face extreme
capacity pressures, ongoing innovation will be critical to maintaining research momentum. In my view, the decentralisation of clinical trials, which was accelerated during COVID-19, must continue at pace, if we are to deliver on our future ambitions for transforming health outcomes. Our experience at EMS Healthcare during the pandemic was that speed of deployment, strong
NHS-Galleri clinical trial mobile unit
partnerships, and a determination to ensure that care was accessible to all our communities, produced outstanding results. The extensive use of mobile facilities and the introduction of new models of delivering care, was a template for success, not just for the extraordinary nationwide roll out of testing and vaccinations, but also for ensuring diverse participation in clinical trials.
Setting out the challenge It was in February that the Government announced that Lord O’Shaughnessy would lead an independent review into the UK commercial clinical trials landscape. It will offer recommendations on how commercial trials can help the life sciences sector unlock UK growth and investment opportunities. It will also advise on how to resolve key challenges in conducting
There is strong evidence that taking trials out of traditional healthcare settings attracts a more positive response from participants. It also enables hard-to-reach communities to have easier access to trials, giving studies better population representation and strengthening their data as a result.
commercial clinical trials in the UK. The intention is for the review to build on the
Government’s 10-year vision for clinical trials, according to the Health Minister, Will Quince: “We are harnessing the same spirit of innovation that delivered the COVID-19 vaccine and working hand-in-hand with the NHS, industry and healthcare experts to get cutting-edge medicines to patients faster. “This review will help us to find new ways
to conduct commercial clinical trials that will speed up diagnosis, enhance treatment and enable the NHS to deliver world-class care, as well as cementing our position as a life science superpower.” There is no doubting the aspiration but, equally, the scale of the challenge is enormous. According to the latest annual report of the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI), patient care, the NHS, and economic growth are all missing out, following a collapse in the number of UK industry clinical trials. The report,Rescuing Patient Access to Industry Clinical Trials in the UK, shows that the number of industry clinical trials initiated in the UK per year fell by 41% between 2017 and 2021, with cancer trials falling by the same margin. The report also shows that between 2017 and 2021: The number of Phase III industry trials
initiated in the UK – those with medicines closest to market – fell by 48%.
June 2023 I
www.clinicalservicesjournal.com 53
©EMS Healthcare
t
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60
