Near patient testing: A patient-centric solution for pharmaceutical clinical trials, advancing drug development
It is well established that a significant proportion of pharmaceutical clinical trials fail due to challenges with patient recruitment and retention and today’s society patients are more aware of their health and wellbeing and are technology-driven and overall better informed, which is changing the way clinical trials are being approached and conducted.
The pharmaceutical and life science industries understand that patient participation is a fundamental requirement for the overall success of clinical trials, proactively focusing on patient centricity. The concept of patient centricity is ensuring the patient is kept informed throughout the process, understanding the outputs of the trial and minimising the burden on the patient, enabling pharma companies to meet patient expectations, improve trial success rates and speed up the development timelines of new drugs.
Aiding clinical trial patient recruitment and retention
One key outcome of this change recently is the move towards decentralisation of clinical trials, where trials are built around patients in their homes, or their community, through remote visits and monitoring, offering significant advantages of convenience for the patient which in turn increases patient recruitment.
One approach employed is ‘smart sampling’, where patients receive a sample collection pack at their home where they follow the clear instructions provided, collect and package the required sample and send it to the laboratory for analysis.
Other clinical trials, however, are going one step further and are bringing testing to the patient’s home, or community healthcare centres, through rapid near-patient testing. This approach is providing real-time results, enabling quick patient enrolment, ensuring retention of participants and empowering patients.
Breaking down the barriers of traditional clinical trials
Lateral flow immunoassay technology is well placed to provide the solution for patient-centric testing in clinical trials, with its ease of use and rapid turnaround of results. With the advancement of lateral flow Smartphone reader apps, the portability of the device and the data collection capability provides a powerful solution for the pharma industry.
Lateral flow Apps can improve remote trial patient interactions via messaging, FAQs and questionnaire functions. Thus, aiding the collection of valuable information, a process that is lengthy and more difficult using traditional methods.
By breaking down the barriers of traditional clinical trials, patient-centric testing will help accelerate the development of new drugs and near-patient tests will likely become the default practice for pharma led clinical trials in the future.
It is, therefore, important that medical device manufacturers collaborate closely with the pharma industry to fully understand patient compliance and regulatory acceptance and to develop a device with high-quality analytical performance and a clear and robust data capture solution.
Learn more
To see how Abingdon Health’s near-patient testing and App technology could help the decentralisation of pharmaceutical clinical trials and expedite the drug development process, please fill out the enquiry form attached to this page.