A customer approached me recently for advice on hiring a chief medical officer. My answer: “Don’t.” The last thing his two-person company needed was to spend a lot of money increasing its staff by 50% and still not achieving its real objective. Not that there’s anything wrong with CMOs—I am one, after all—but tiny, virtual...
Medical science is making significant advances in treating schizophrenia, but for all the progress we’ve seen, patients don’t benefit much unless they regularly take their medications. Second-generation (or atypical) long-acting injectable antipsychotic treatments (LATs) that ensure consistent administration of medication have become widely available over the past 15 years, but they remain a tough sell...
CAR-T cells are complex products, and translating them from basic and preclinical research to clinical trials and commercialization can be challenging. Understanding the regulations and developing a protocol that puts safety first—at every stage of development—are important first steps in bringing promising CAR-T cell therapies to the patients who need them most. CAR-T Cell Therapies:...
Last week, we discussed the high placebo response that plagues neuroscience clinical trials. Today we turn to another common challenge: patient recruitment. We’ll take a look at three strategies that can be used to improve trial participation: the use of several patient sources when recruiting a focus on patient-centric solutions the use of patient recruitment...
Neuroscience clinical trials, especially those for psychiatry and analgesia indications, have always had to deal with the challenge of high placebo response. Most troubling is that the placebo response rate seems to be on the rise, at least in the U.S. Bigger placebo responses make it harder to show that an experimental treatment is...
Most early-stage biotechnology companies have limited resources and manpower. As a result, early-stage biotechs conducting randomized clinical trial research often need a CRO’s help to deliver the quality data required to make their ideas and theories achieve practical purpose. In addition, engaging a CRO with a depth of strategic expertise early in the planning process...
With billions of neurons, the brain is the most complex organ in the body, so it’s not surprising that neuroscience clinical trials—more so than trials in other medical specialties—face major challenges, both conceptual and practical. In this new blog series, we’ll look at the challenges sponsors face when operationalizing clinical trials and share lessons from...
The marketplace for orphan drugs is growing, and changes in the regulatory landscape are providing favorable conditions for collaboration in the area of drug development in rare diseases. Understanding the regulatory and operational nuances of orphan drug development can help sponsors position their promising compounds for clinical and commercial success. Today more than ever, researchers...
Measuring, interpreting, and mitigating placebo response is a persistent and growing challenge in analgesia clinical trials. In the conclusion of our Premier Voices podcast series on the placebo problem, Paul Mirek, Marketing Manager, and Michael Kuss, BS, Vice President, Analgesia Product Development, examine experimental trial designs, inclusion and exclusion criteria, and other approaches to managing the...
The placebo effect’s impact on drug development is widely known, but you may be surprised to learn that the word “placebo” has had multiple meanings — all of them pejorative — going back hundreds of years. Scott Millard, Premier Research’s Executive Director for Strategic Development and Analgesia, explores the role of placebos in the...