Centre of the pharmaverse – PharmaTimes

Adapting to the new normal includes a wider understanding of the challenges in clinical trial decentralisation

During the pandemic virtual clinical trials were perceived by many as heralding the dawn of a new era for clinical research.

Professor Yan Yiannakou – Chief Investigator of the UK’s first fully virtual trial and Clinical Director of NIHR Patient Recruitment Centre, Newcastle – examines the evolving clinical trials landscape and reflects on whether the predictions are translating into fad or fate.

In 2020, RELIEVE IBS-D was the first interventional commercial trial in the UK to be converted to a fully virtual – also known as decentralised – clinical trial (DCT). The trial showed transformational improvement to the recruitment and retention of trial participants. A year later, the Government policy paper on clinical trials urged further development of DCTs. Despite this strong start, progress in Europe has been much slower than in the USA.

Check out the rest of this feature here