Reducing Drug Development Time-Focus on Patient Recruitment

Abstract

The reduction of clinical development time for new drugs is a high priority for pharmaceutical companies. One of the areas of greatest potential for such an endeavor is thetimetaken to recruit patients into the Phase III clinical program. The reasons for slow patient recruitment tend to revolve around two main areas: the investigator/center and the protocol. Therefore, investigators/centers must be carefully and methodically evaluated and selected prior to study commencement and recruitment strategies should be implemented at the center as soon as the trial commences. Equally as important, protocols should be closely scrutinized to ensure that each of the inclusion/exclusion criteria are required and that the study has the full support of both patient and investigator. This approach will help to optimize patient recruitment and thus reduce the time needed to develop new drugs.