Radiation therapy was first used to treat cancer more than a century ago, and nearly half of all cancer patients still receive it at some point during their treatment.1 Historically, most radiation therapy was given by delivering ionizing beams of radiation from outside the body, but with advances in the field of nuclear medicine, radionuclides...
In this era of precision medicine, biomarkers play a critical role in the rational development of novel therapies. With advances in both our understanding of cancer pathophysiology and tumor profiling technology, biomarkers can now be used to provide important insights at every stage of drug discovery and development. In this article, we explore the common...
Antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) are an active area of oncology research, partly due to advances in synthetic biochemistry that may help improve the tissue specificity and cytotoxicity of these complex therapeutics. In recent years, the pace of development for this class of cancer therapeutics has been increasing, with 12 ADCs approved by the FDA since June...
The FDA is committed to increasing sponsor opportunities to apply RWD and RWE to support regulatory decision-making.1 The goal is to use quantities of available data, streamline the drug development process, and learn how interventions perform in real-world use, outside the strictly controlled limits of a clinical trial. According to legal and scientific standards, the...
Real-world data (RWD) and real-world evidence (RWE) have become an increasingly important part of the medical product development landscape. These tools can enable sponsors to optimize clinical trial designs and demonstrate the real-world effectiveness of new medical products. Part 2 of this three-part blog series outlines a fit-for-purpose approach to RWE. (See Part 1: What...
The 21st Century Cures Act (Cures Act)1 signed into United States law in 2016 aims to accelerate medical product development and bring innovations to patients faster through real-world evidence (RWE) to support regulatory decision making. Incorporating real-world data (RWD) and real-world evidence (RWE) can help pharma and biotech companies optimize clinical trial designs and demonstrate...
Before the 2012 Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Nonprescription Safe Use Regulatory Expansion (NSURE) initiative, sponsors were transitioning prescription drugs (Rx) to over-the-counter (OTC). Streamlined access to effective treatments clearly benefits patients and payers. At the same time, easier access for consumers typically results in increased sales and profitability for pharma and biotech companies. As...
Patient enrollment Managing clinical trials requires extensive planning of patient enrollment. Clinical trials may be more cost-effective with better forecasts of recruitment. A variety of circumstances influence the enrollment of subjects. Several factors to consider, including the rarity of the condition being examined, the capacity of the trial sites to recruit participants, and the degree...
The challenge of enrollment for observational research Patient enrollment and retention for investigational trials are notoriously difficult. How is enrollment affected when there is no direct benefit to the patient: no breakthrough study drug with the potential to cure, no added caregiver time, no meaningful compensation for participating? Observational studies, by design, demand a continuation...
Oncology clinical trial activity in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region has been robust over the past decade, increasing 138 percent from 2010 to 2020.1 In the past, most studies conducted in APAC countries were later studies, but there has recently been an uptick in the number of phase 1 trials. This bustling activity, in combination with...