According to the company, Quotient Clinical’s total data sciences headcount has increased by more than 34% during the past two years and the company is continuing to recruit.
Greg Johnson, VP Data Sciences, Quotient Clinical, told us the main rationale behind the expansion is the growth in Quotient’s Translational Pharmaceutics service, which integrates formulation development, real-time adaptive GMP manufacturing, and clinical testing.
Johnson explained data science support services are a key component of this: “we understand that our sponsors need data to make key decisions during studies and this is particularly true for multipart, complex early Phase studies,” he said.
“To explain further, our Data Science processes are fully integrated with our clinical services and we regularly perform interim PK modelling, interim statistical analysis including sample size re-adjustment and provision of interim data review listings,” Johnson added.
Data demand
Demand for Quotient’s data science services has come “fairly evenly” from geographic and biotech/pharma perspectives, Johnson said.
“Service wise, we have continued to deliver CDISC SDTM and ADaM datasets as standard but we have a seen a growth in requests for define.xml services over the past 12 months,” he added.
The company's next steps will be continuing support for the growing volume of early Phase clinical trials run at Quotient for its sponsors.
As for the future, Johnson said existing trends will “doubtless continue,” including greater complexity of multi-part early Phase studies run under single protocols and growth in the requirements for data and scientific expertise to support such studies.
“Data science functions have a vital role to play in support of these trends,” Johnson explained, adding that likely growth in the importance of modeling and simulation services to help design aspects of early Phase clinical studies is also “something to watch out for.”