Good clinical practice (GCP) guidelines govern important aspects of clinical trials to ensure patient safety and scientific integrity. “GCP” is a quality standard which refers to the document put forth by the International Council on Harmonisation of Technical Requirements for Registration of Pharmaceuticals for Human Use (ICH). The ICH is a group made up of...
In general, greater certainty about the clinical benefit of a drug correlates with an increased time to achieve needed results — the best evidence can take years of careful follow-up. But an unnecessarily long time to market isn’t good for sponsors and patients alike. This is especially true for patients battling rare cancers: With many of these conditions lacking standard treatments,...
Traditional trials apply a frequentist strategy, which rely on the accuracy of pre-defined design assumptions (or inputs) to construct an effective design that yields robust final trial results. From first-patient-in to last- patient-out, trial execution proceeds without change, following a black box approach. While this strategy is common in clinical research, it is not well suited to...
What are sponsors in medical device trials responsible for? Pretty much everything. Seriously. Clinical trials for medical devices involve many complex “moving parts” in the form of different groups of investigators, suppliers, contractors, committees, and other organizations. For a successful trial, sponsors must make sure each works together in harmony. Roles of a Sponsor The seven key...
No matter your role in the industry, you may have heard about the significant upcoming changes to European medical device regulations. But just what are they? What’s the proposed implementation timeline? Here’s an overview of the proposed legislation, as well as a tentative schedule of important dates. Getting Up to Speed In June 2016, the...
Despite advances in the orphan drug development process and the more prominent role that patient advocacy groups now play, researchers in this area still face a number of challenges. But, fortunately, increased collaboration between patient groups, industry leaders, and regulatory bodies can help overcome these hurdles. Barriers to orphan drug research include: Small population By definition,...
Rare diseases present some unique obstacles for researchers that significantly contribute to the high cost of drug development. Fortunately, innovations in biomarker use have the potential to significantly cut back on these costs while improving data quality. However, before biomarkers can be used in this research, their associated collection, measurement, and evaluation methods must be validated. The key phases of biomarker...
With increasing demands for evidence of clinical efficacy and safety, applying sound research practices to medical device development is crucial for a product’s success. The Need for High Standards in Study Design When bringing a new medical device to the market — or even reevaluating an existing product — device companies must answer to: Regulators placing greater scrutiny on...
In clinical drug research, time is of the essence. Not only are researchers, in many cases, trying to beat their competitors to market, their ability to conduct a timely clinical trial can be the difference between life and death for the target audience. The question is, then, how do you as a sponsor get your contract research organizations...
One of the most rewarding efforts I’ve seen in my years working with Premier Research is watching our Rare Disease Day activities unfold. Every year we ask our employees to support Rare Disease Day in some way, so we can all remember how crucial our role is in clinical development, especially in this area of...