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© 2000-2021. Parexel International Corporation.
275 Grove St., Suite 101C, Newton, MA 02466
+1 617 454 9300
2520 Meridian Parkway, Research Triangle Park, Suite 200, Durham, NC 27713
+1 919 544 3170
© 2000-2021. Parexel International Corporation.
BY Vicky Hsu, VP, Head of Biotech Operations, APAC; Chang Q. Lee, M.D., Vice President, Consulting & Access, APAC; Jeff Ten, Director, Project Management and Delivery/Clinical Trial Supplies & Logistics, APAC; Sharon Huang, Director, Clinical Operations, APAC; Ami Yang, Director, Integrated Solution Consultant; Larry Ji, Senior Director, Clinical Operations, China; and Zhenglong Tian, Sr. Director, Data operation, APAC - 4.15.20 -
Interested in learning more about our lessons learned in China with COVID-19? Register for our upcoming webinar on April 23. |
The upcoming ‘new normal’
“The COVID-19 outbreak began in Asia – but so have early indications of containment, new protocols, and the resumption of economic activity. … [I]t’s time to ask if the next normal could be emerging in Asia.” – McKinsey & Company, April 2020
With China having lifted travel restrictions and other countries hoping to do so in coming weeks, CROs and biopharma companies should be readying themselves to quickly adapt to the “new normal” based on learnings from the first stage of the crisis, which is focused on patient/employee safety and business continuity.
The challenges of COVID-19 on clinical research were covered in our first blog of our series: including suspended trials; challenges in recruiting and retaining patients; difficulties in getting investigational therapies to patients; and complications in collecting data, to name a few.
In this article we’ll examine the next stage of how we see COVID-19 playing out and the return to a familiar – but also a changed and changing – clinical trial ecosystem.
One thing to keep top-of-mind: There will never be a better time to implement near-term changes based on learnings from this crisis. In China we’re seeing investigators and sites much more open to innovations such as remote monitoring; patients have benefited from direct-to-patient delivery of study medications; and collaboration between sponsors, CROs, and regulators has shortened actions that normally take months into days or weeks.
The world is now looking to the biopharma industry to bring the hope of new treatments for COVID-19 and the most desired outcome of all – a vaccine.
This presents a golden opportunity to keep the momentum going. Crisis-born innovations that have shown their worth should be institutionalized as soon as possible. Task forces and workflows should be coordinated centrally to ensure that country, regional and global changes align.
The new normal: Less patient travel, less anxiety, higher retention
We believe transition to the new normal will include greater use virtual trials and digitally enabled remote activities. This will be especially important as sponsors try to recruit patients who may be reluctant to visit sites and hospitals because of fear of contracting COVID-19 or other communicable diseases.
In China and South Korea, we implemented the following to keep trials moving forward during February and March, when travel restrictions made traditional means unavailable.
Interest in decentralized clinical trials (DCTs) is rising. The Chinese government recently issued a plan of action to promote virtual clinical trials to both speed development and reduce face-to-face interactions required in traditional trials.
We will go into DCTs in more depth in part three of the four-part series.
The key learnings for biopharma and CROs are two-fold: First, companies should prioritize, accelerate, and scale the rollout of digital tools to online clinical trials. Second, companies should collaborate broadly with regulatory authorities and other stakeholders to establish online trial management platforms, such as ethics committee review, patient consent, trial monitoring, etc.
The sense of urgency created by COVID-19 has created opportunities to accelerate the adoption of innovations to make clinical research faster and more resilient and reduce the burden on patients. These include:
Another way to reduce patients’ travel burden and the number of people they meet in person is home nursing, in which nurses conduct clinical study visits in the patients’ homes. Home nurses also can coordinate integrated ancillary services, such as patient travel support, direct-to-patient investigational medical product shipment, and sample transportation.
Direct-to-patient drug shipments present another opportunity for change. We used this strategy to overcome barriers to patient travel during the crisis. Currently we have 250+ actives DTP studies globally, not including the studies in China in which DTP was used on an emergency basis.
While we are still evolving and adjusting to the new normal, we hope this blog gives you a flavor for how COVID-19 has created many opportunities to change our industry for the better.
To learn more about our lessons learned in China with COVID-19, register for our webinar on April 23.
"With China having lifted travel restrictions and other countries hoping to do so in coming weeks, CROs and biopharma companies should be readying themselves to quickly adapt to the “new normal” based on learnings from the first stage of the crisis, which is focused on patient/employee safety and business continuity."
The Parexel Podcast | Episode 8: Performing clinical trials in a shifting development landscape
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The Parexel Podcast | Episode 10: The emerging role of wearables in clinical trials
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The Parexel Podcast | Episode 11: Maintaining Clinical Trial Continuity During COVID-19: The Patient Perspective
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