Boehringer Ingelheim, GSK, Novo Nordisk win TrialScope transparency awards

17-Dec-2018 - Last updated on 12-Dec-2018 at 20:00 GMT

(Image: Getty/Athitat Shinagowin)

TrialScope this year awarded several companies for their clinical trial data transparency efforts as the industry makes strides to engage patients and the larger health care community.

TrialScope recently held its 2018 Strategic Partner Meeting to share best practices and collaborate on patient engagement initiatives. The discussion also centered on operationalizing and automating disclosure processes, according to the company.

“Patient engagement is a growing area of both strategic and ethical importance,” Thomas Wicks, chief strategy officer, TrialScope, said.

As part of the meeting, the company – which provides clinical trial transparency and compliance solutions – also announced the first Clārus Awards winners.

The awards, getting its name from the Latin word “Clārus” for “clear,” covered three categories.

Novo Nordisk won the Compliance Leadership Award based on an assessment of publicly available data from the ClinicalTrials.gov and the EU Clinical Trials Register (CTR).

GlaxoSmithKline was recognized as the Disclosure and Transparency Trailblazer for its work on the GSK Study Register and through the data sharing community Clinical Study Data Request (CSDR).

For the third award, Anke Ehlert from Boehringer Ingelheim won for Disclosure & Transparency Vanguard.

“The focus of the clinical trial disclosure community over the past decade has been primarily on compliance with regulations, consistency of the available data, and process efficiency,” Wicks told us. While larger sponsors have made progress in these areas, he noted that many mid- and small-sized companies have only recently started to focus on the issues.

Wicks said, “Industry leaders are recognizing the value of trial transparency beyond mere compliance with regulations and are leveraging their investments in disclosure to engage with patients, trial participants, and the broader healthcare community.

“There is a growing understanding that this engagement is not only the right thing to do, but that it also helps with trial enrollment and retention, as well as developing trust and communication.”

For many, Wicks said the next step is recognizing the value of broader data transparency and making the commitment to implement a more “patient-focused and generous data-sharing policy.”