ALS Association partners with myTomorrows to improve clinical trial accessibility

The fatal motor neurone disease currently does not have a cure available to treat patients

The ALS Association and myTomorrows have partnered to improve the accessibility of future clinical trials for patients living with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).

The aim of the partnership is to ensure that patients living with the condition and physicians are up-to-date with information about pre-approval treatment options and clinical trials.

ALS is a fatal motor neurone disease that is characterised by the progressive degeneration of nerve cells in the spinal cord and brain, affecting the voluntary control of arms and legs.

Usually fatal within five years with no cure available, searching for clinical trials for ALS patients is challenging due to its day-to-day implications and rapid escalation.

The US-based ALS Association and myTomorrows aim to tackle these challenges and make it easier for patients and their families to participate in clinical trials.

The ALS Association will utilise myTomorrow’s database of ongoing clinical trials and will leverage its patient navigation service to provide ALS patients and physicians with up-to-date pre-approved treatment information and guide them towards relevant clinical trials.

Serving patients, physicians, trial sites and biopharma to connect stakeholders at key points in clinical trial recruitment, the global health technology company’s platform works to connect pharmaceutical companies with physicians and patients to streamline the enlistment process.

The platform explores patients’ cases individually, helping them to identify and understand all available clinical trial options while providing guidance from an expert patient navigator to support patients and their families throughout the clinical trial process.

This approach is intended to make the recruitment process more efficient for both patients and physicians while “reducing the barriers they may face in accessing their treatment options,” said myTomorrows chief executive officer, Michel van Harten.

Pam Knott, vice president, data and technology, the ALS Association, commented: “Research participation is so impactful to finding treatments and cures as well as reducing the harms of ALS.

“This new partnership… [will] allow more people with ALS to enrol into clinical trials faster while also reducing burden.”