CLINICAL OPERATIONS & OUTSOURCING


Patient recruitment: an paracit fill both prescriptions and


T


e never-ending callenge o nding and recruiting eligible clinical trial participants continues to push sponsors


to nd new avenues to eedite enrolment. As decentralisation shakes up traditional trial lanning and eecution models ormerly adjacent ealtcare ecosystem layers suc as armacies view te clinical trial sace as an oortunity and tey are eing seen y sonsors and Cs as a otential new aroac to atient identication and engagement.


Historically, the clinical research space viewed a pharmacy as a channel to educate and raise awareness within the local community. However, over time, pharmacies started to build meaningful and rich information databases about patients and their medical needs. “The pharmacy increasingly became viewed as a place where, if we could tap that data source, it would allow us to better target individual patients or patient communities,” says Kenneth Getz, director and research professor at Tufts University School of Medicine and founder of the Center for Information & Study on Clinical Research Participation (CISCRP) in the US.


While this model is being explored in some


countries more than in others, it holds several benefits in clinical trial condct, sch as reaching underrepresented communities and giving access to better healthcare. Yet, as with every new approach, there are areas with


clinical trial As CVS, Walgreens and other retail pharmacy giants permeate the clinical trial space, questions remain about the effective integration into pharmacists’ workflows.


potential pitfalls or challenges that might hinder clinical trials.


tail parac iant lra tir footprint Pharmacy-based recruitment entered the clinical trial indstry in the  first, with behemoth chain pharmacies such as CVS and Walgreens entering the clinical trial space. CVS’s clinical trial journey started during the ovid pandemic when it was difficlt to enable clinical research at traditional sites, says Josh Rose, vice-president and head of clinical trial delivery, site solutions and strategy at CVS.


“Because of our pharmacy footprint, many pharma sponsors and the government looked at CVS to enable the delivery of clinical trials, particularly for vaccines and Covid-19 testing,” he adds. The large footprint of these chain pharmacies is what makes them a convenient place to find sitable patients. “CVS and Walgreens are everywhere, and


that is very important as one of the challenges with clinical research and why there is a low patient participation is because sites aren’t everywhere,” Rose says. Because retail giants are everywhere,


questions have been raised about competition. Rose says he does not view Walgreens as a competitor because there is a scarcity of good clinical trial sites and retail clinical trials can fill that void. However, he notes that CVS has the advantage of having a large insurance arm,


Outsourcing In Clinical Trials | 17


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