Update
InVentiv partnership will increase its access to trial site database
As the cost of drug development now exceeds $1B and running a single trial can run up to $100mn, sponsors are still struggling to find trial sites that can enrol enough patients. About 80% of clinical trials are delayed because of unfulfilled enrolment, according to ViS.
The ViS database, which expanded in July with an alliance with a network of trial sites, is an open-access platform that more than 70 sponsors and CROs use to engage with the sites. But this partnership will allow inVentiv to have exclusive access to clinically relevant information, Dr. Fabio Thiers, ViS CEO, told Outsourcing-Pharma in an interview.
"They’ll be able to evaluate sites in quicker and more efficient ways,” Dr. Thiers said, noting that the partnership will also allow inVentiv to do away with their feasibility questionnaires for sites.
With more than 400,000 research centers worldwide, trial planners send out lengthy paper-based feasibility questionnaires that are frequently never filled out or returned. An estimated $10 billion a year is wasted because of poor site selection, according to ViS.
Though it’s difficult to gauge which of the major CROs have the largest trial site databases since most of them reveal scant details about what they’re tracking, Dr. Thiers said that ViS’ is one of the few that encourages sites to update information on equipment, the progress of trials and other metrics since so many sponsors and CROs access the site.
The partnership is another sign that inVentiv is looking to beef up its trial site selection prowess as it's similar to one inVentiv announced in June with Medikly.
Jim Carroll, VP of product management and marketing at inventive, told Outsourcing-Pharma that ViS’ “real time, self-curated information” contains a “comprehensive collection of site-specific capabilities that is not available through any other investigator or site database.”
