Contract research organization (CRO) Clinipace has announced its ‘flexible’ and ‘personalized’ clinical study services will be marketed under the ‘Challenge Accepted’ brand, to meet the demands of a “rapidly changing” clinical research industry, said CEO Jason Monteleone.
We spoke with Monteleone (JM) to discuss how the clinical trial model is evolving, the challenges of patient recruitment, and how ‘Challenge Accepted’ is responding to an increasingly patient-centric industry.
What does Clinipace predict for the future of clinical trials?
JM: There is a need to reduce timelines and costs so that sponsors can make better use of their capital. We can see a longer-term scenario whereby patients will be taking greater ownership of their healthcare. A good deal of patients today do not have a primary provider, so the traditional patient-provider relationship has changed.
We foresee that patients will become more educated and seek out clinical trials on their own. Increasing patient recruitment will require investment to make it easier for patients to find and learn about clinical studies. We see in-house clinical trials attracting increased attention, as convenience becomes a larger part of our economy. Virtual/in-house studies will provide an opportunity to increase patient recruitment.
Is Clinipace investing in patient-centric approaches?
JM: We understand and acknowledge that patient recruitment is one of the biggest challenges facing clinical trials today. We are exploring various options on how to improve patient recruitment. Potential solutions may range from collaborating with patient recruitment organisations, partnering with sites, building our own in-house group focused on patient recruitment, or all of the above.
We also believe that in order to be patient-centric, we need to be site-centric and look to build solid relationships with traditional research sites, but also look at alternative virtual site models.
What should we expect for Clinipace this year?
JM: Clinipace has ambitious goals for 2018 that contribute to our goal of becoming the industry’s premier mid-size CRO. This includes a new clinical stack with off-the-shelf best of breed technology delivering clinical trial data visualization reporting via Microsoft business intelligence. We would like to have real time patient level data from third party vendors by January 2019.
Aside from the ‘Challenge Accepted’ rebranding and messaging for our organization, which kicked off at DIA Global Annual Meeting in Boston, MA, we are also implementing Microsoft’s global ERP (enterprise resource planning) system – Microsoft Dynamics – and increasing penetration into Japan and Eastern Europe.
We are actively discussing several partnerships that would strengthen our capabilities in several areas, and have expanded our executive team. This year we have hired chief development officer of clinical development Dawn Sauro, CMO Sharon Moore, VP of clinical analytics Charlene Dark, EUME SVP of operations Ian Fraser, VP of human resources Judith Barnett, and our CFO Karen Turner joined in December of last year.