With the 14th annual DPHARM® wrapping up, we talked to our peers across the industry to find out what the big themes and takeaways were from this year’s conference.

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There’s no doubt that study launches come with extremely high stakes for sponsors requiring precise coordination over numerous critical activities across multiple stakeholders, including regulatory bodies, ethics committees, investigator sites, and internal teams. Now, sponsors can see exactly what’s happening live across assessments, instruments, translations, and more. This is true whether their internal teams handle launch activities or whether vendors handle them, a stark contrast to the traditional technology development process.

The landscape of clinical trials is undergoing a significant transformation as digital measures and digital health technologies (DHTs) continue to evolve and prove their worth. 

As of December 2023, approximately 1,550 clinical trials worldwide utilized wearable devices, representing about 2% of all trials. While this percentage may seem small, it marks a steady increase since 2014, and the momentum is set to accelerate.

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The pharmaceutical industry faces a daunting challenge: it takes an average of 12 years and $3 billion to bring a new drug to patients, with the FDA approving an average of 50 new therapies yearly. 

This pace is inadequate to address humanity's needs and our own future goal of helping the industry produce ten times the number of treatments it does today. 

A significant bottleneck is the lengthy clinical trial process, where Phase 3 studies alone can span three years or more. However, a critical factor compounding these timelines is the difficulty in recruiting sufficient patients for these crucial studies, often adding up to 2 years to the already protracted journey. 

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The annual American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) meeting in Chicago highlighted the latest new molecules, methods of care, and innovation in cancer care. 

As the show closed out, we checked in with our associates to see what they thought were the biggest news and trends of the show. 

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Within biosample storage, a “nightmare scenario” exists that Medable and our clients discuss regularly.

Some years ago, a sponsor with tens of thousands of biosample specimens identified that they had lost the ability to link their biobank samples' documented consent for storage (and further research). The consent for these samples was taken on paper, but a system to collate and file the consent data attributed to each specimen was not implemented. When the organization couldn’t find the paper consent, they were forced to dispose of thousands of biospecimens, losing the ability to conduct valuable research and potentially millions of dollars of lost IP.

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In the lead-up to ASCO 2024 the oncology enterprise has much to celebrate. New drug approvals at FDA reached a three-decade high with anticancer drugs representing the largest percentage of new approvals. EHR vendors are making proactive commitments to cancer data standards to support scientific breakthroughs and more effective cancer treatment. And, for the first time ever, payers are offering a new reimbursable pathway for improved cancer outcomes via comprehensive supportive care. 

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Within clinical research, email is not just a compliant and valuable tool, it’s commonly the gold standard when communicating with participants. Read on to find out why.

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With the share of oncology trials continuing to increase, the case for using digital tools in these trials grows with it.

Today, cancer trials are the most commonly researched of all diseases, with their share of clinical trials growing each year. According to research from Tufts CSDD,  the number of cancer drugs “has nearly quadrupled since 2000, to 1,489 trials in 2021, up from 421 two decades earlier.”

Tufts CSDD notes that this growth comes as “oncology drug developers are increasingly shifting toward precision medicine, embracing new molecular targets and improvements in genetic sequencing technologies”

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Since our inception in 2015, Medable has conducted over 300+ digital and decentralized trials using eCOA, eConsent, telehealth, and more. However, just as a bell curve shows, adoption rates for new technologies can wildly vary across our industry. While some organizations quickly implement new technologies, others take a more cautious approach. 

Together, this team, which included Mihai Viisan, a Solution Design SME, Luka Ajduk, a Product Implementation Lead, and Ted Meyer, the Supply Chain Coordinator, built a trusting working relationship in which Medable led study implementation.

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In June of 2022, Open AI forever changed the world’s technological landscape with the release of ChatGPT 3.5. The explosion and proliferation of AI tools have become a focal point of interest and curiosity in almost every industry, with commentators in pharma wondering how AI can improve clinical research.

In January 2024, panelists from Syneos, Obvious Ventures, Sapphire Ventures, IDEA Pharma, and GSR Ventures joined Medable’s CEO, Dr. Michelle Longmire, to discuss the purpose, potential, and power this transformative technology offers. 

Here’s what they had to say.

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With BBC Research forecasting that “the global smartphone-based patient monitoring market should reach $21.5 billion by 2027,” it’s safe to say that smartphones, tablets, and other devices have become a cornerstone of modern clinical trials.

Today’s trials use smart devices to help facilitate several important trial activities, like informed consent, data collection, patient feedback, and more. As a result, ensuring device delivery logistics has become a crucial step in getting a trial started and keeping participants engaged throughout its duration.

At Medable, we often handle device shipping for our customers' clinical trials. The team responsible for providing this service, led by Carl Franzetti, SVP of Professional Global Services has a market-leading 99% device shipment rate, with the remaining 1% resulting from normal business operation limitations such as weather outages.

The result? Our customer’s trials start on time and their participants are better engaged. 

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