Typically, when people talk about a full-service contract research organization (CRO) they mean a group that handles every aspect of a clinical study, supplying the personnel, the systems, and the processes. The sponsor is spared all operational involvement with the full-service model, simply receiving key information at specified intervals. This model works very well for...
Placebo response is one of the most significant challenges faced by drug developers who are investigating new pain medications. According to a review of published chronic neuropathic pain trials, placebo responses have increased in magnitude over time, making it even more difficult to definitively demonstrate treatment advantage.1 Research has also shown that up to 60...
Connected medical devices, like all other computer systems, are vulnerable to threats that may lead to compromise of data confidentiality, integrity, and availability. To address these challenges, the Healthcare and Public Health Sector Coordinating Council (HSCC) Joint Cybersecurity Working Group recently issued the Medical Device and Health Information Technology (IT) Joint Security Plan (JSP). [1]...
As medical device regulations evolve and global, multi-center studies become increasingly common, a growing number of sponsors are turning to independent committees such as Data Monitoring Committees (DMCs) or Clinical Endpoint Committees (CECs) for assistance with clinical trial oversight. However, given that neither the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) nor the European Medicines Agency...
Data monitoring committees and clinical endpoint committees can provide independent, expert review of study data and opinions to standardize outcomes and optimize data quality to help sponsors meet complex trial monitoring requirements. As global, multi-center medical device studies become increasingly common, trial monitoring is growing more complex. Regulators require that sponsors perform site monitoring to...
We were reviewing a study protocol for a maker of medical devices, and there was one provision that just didn’t make sense. The sponsor specified a need for regular data monitoring committee meetings, but we didn’t see the need and couldn’t justify the effort. It was a short study involving few sites. In all likelihood,...
The European Union’s new Medical Device Regulation (MDR) and In Vitro Diagnostics Regulation (IVDR) are putting a lot of pressure on the medical device industry. These are big changes with far-reaching implications, and if there’s a common denominator among them, it can be summed up in one word: more. In this episode of Premier Voices,...
In May 2012, the leaders of 30 medicine regulatory bodies from around the world gathered at the 65th World Health Assembly in Geneva, collectively puzzling over how to improve cooperation among them. Their answer came later that year: form the International Coalition of Medicines Regulatory Authorities (ICMRA), a voluntary group of Heads of Agency (HoA)...
In a clinical trial landscape where global, multi-center studies have become increasingly common, trial monitoring has become more complex. Regulations require that sponsors of medical device studies perform site monitoring to ensure that investigators are compliant with federal regulations, sponsor agreements, the investigational plan and the requirements set forth in the Investigational Review Board (IRB)...
Immuno-gene therapeutics are transforming the therapeutic landscape of hematological malignancies. The recent approvals of two chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T-cell therapies—tisagenlecleucel (marketed as Kymriah™) and axicabtagene ciloleucel (marketed as Yescarta™)—mark the beginning of the next revolution in cancer treatment. However, along with demonstrated efficacy in hematologic malignancies, CAR T-cells have the capacity to elicit serious...