When Clinical Trials Suffer From 'Complicated' Interactions

Diversity in culture, language, and data gathering methods will further increase the difficulty of clinical trials as they become more international, particularly with the growing number of sites being employed across China, Japan, South Korea, and India.

- 

Dr Christine Senn, Senior Vice President, Site-Sponsor Innovation, Advarra

Clinical trial management involves several scientific, commercial, and practical requirements that the industry will continue to struggle to satisfy without more cooperation across research sites, sponsors, and stakeholders. The need for better site-sponsored-CRO coordination will only increase as clinical trials continue to become more complicated.

When almost half of clinical trial stakeholders describe their working relationships as "complicated," it's a sign that something needs to change.

That sentiment was one of several findings that came to light with Advarra's recent industry survey of more than 200 stakeholders across the clinical research ecosystem. The results, which included responses from clinical research sites, sponsors, and clinical research organizations (CROs), highlight significant barriers to collaboration while offering concrete steps to overcome them.

The feedback provides a picture of an industry grappling with communication gaps, staffing shortages, and technology overload. However, the findings also point to practical solutions that could transform these strained relationships and accelerate the development of new treatments.

While nearly two-thirds of sponsors say their relationship with sites is "collaborative," just about half of sites say the same about sponsors, and only 31 percent characterise their relationship with CROs as such. The survey also found efficiency gaps - sites reporting they must copy or transcribe data between systems about 60 percent of the time, and the same percentage saying they frequently enter identical data into multiple systems. These duplications can lead to data errors and trial delays.