Clinical trial 'hidden gems' luring big pharma: "An increasing number of factors are luring sponsors to offshore clinical trials to 'hidden gems' across the globe, delegates heard at this week's Accelerating Patient Recruitment & Retention in Clinical Trials conference, run by SMi in London.
The US is still dominant in the clinical trials arena, carrying out 53 per cent of the world's 59,000 Phase I-III studies, however, US investigator groups are continuously underperforming with patient recruitment, with 50 per cent of sites recruiting less than 5 per cent of patients and 30 per cent recruiting 50 per cent of patients.
Despite notorious issues with recruitment, this is no longer the country's number one cause for trial delay either, with contract and budget delays taking over the number one spot of woe and 94 per cent of all US trials are now delayed over a month.
Meanwhile in Europe, ethics committee review and application; patient recruitment; legal review, contract and budget negotiations; and protocol amendment are the biggest trial headaches.
As a result, R&D spend by pharmaceutical companies is growing by 10 per cent a year in the US - with much of this being spent on Phase III studies - while their spend outside the US is growing 13 per cent."
