It’s no secret that clinical trials are taking longer than ever: The typical non-oncology drug can spend anywhere from 5.9 to 7.2 years in the clinic before it gets to market—if it gets approved at all. In addition, many drugs require an average of up to three different trials, in each of four phases, to confirm drug safety and efficacy.
With so much effort and energy required to get a trial from planning to completion just as a baseline, it’s important to avoid delays as much as possible. Unfortunately, most sponsors fail to identify and address the warning signs of delay in a systematic way.
In our recent webinar, Evaluating Trial Delay Sources & Reducing Cycle Times, 58% of attendees admitted to falling short in this area.
Figure 1. Less than half of webinar attendees track metrics and use feedback
to predict clinical trial delays and associated costs.
Failure to deal with the causes of delay proactively is likely to result in serious issues that impact cycle times, create frustration, and force companies to scramble to come up with more staff, sites, and money at the last minute.
This kind of reactive strategy does not appear to be working:
- 80% of trials fail to meet their enrollment deadlines
- 50% of sites enroll one or no patients
- 72% of studies run more than a month behind schedule
- Daily cost overruns range from $600,000 to $8,000,000
The Cycle Time Sweet Spot
Fortunately, solutions exist that can help you identify the causes of your trial delays and reduce your cycle times. In order to hit what I call the Cycle Time Sweet Spot, you must use a combination of data-driven solutions from the start of each clinical trial all the way through completion and review.
Figure 2. A combination of planning, conduct, and review solutions can help you identify issues and act sooner to ensure data quality and keep your trials on time.
Whether your trials are delayed by poor enrollment rates, poor site activation rates, or something else, best practices reveal a list of common solutions that can help you identify and resolve your specific issues before they create bigger problems:
- Real-time access to trial data
- Data aggregation across sites, studies, and CROs
- Robust forecasting solutions
- Predictive analytics
- Drilldown capability
- Task management system
With these solutions in place, you’ll not only know what’s slowing down your clinical trials, but you’ll also know how to speed them up so they get completed without delays.
For more information on using technology to reduce cycle times, watch our webinar now. If you like what you see and need help putting these solutions in place, call Comprehend at 650-521-5449 or request a demo.
