Clinical Trial Recruitment Strategies: Optimizing patient recruitment and retention in late stage clinical trials

Introduction

The recruitment of patients for clinical trials is an essential part of the complex and inherently risky R&D process for pharmaceuticals. Operationally, patient recruitment involves targeting the right patients with the right messages and retaining enrolled patients with effective customer service.

Scope of this research

• Detailed assessment of the important role played by patient recruitment within the broader clinical trial program and beyond.
• Comprehensive trend analysis, setting the context for patient recruitment efforts across the varying parameters associated with clinical trials.
• Patient recruitment benchmark targets based on the most up-to-date clinical trial data available.
• Real-life case study examples of how companies apply some of the most contemporary approaches to patient recruitment.
• Detailed recommendations that must be applied to all trials in order to optimize recruitment efforts and deliver success clinical study programs.

Research and analysis highlights

Those companies best able to deliver on their patient recruitment and retention objectives will enjoy a comparative advantage in late-stage clinical trial delivery, completing trials with greater levels of cost-efficiency, timeliness and success.

Although trial lifecycles appear to be shortening, the rate of successful completion in late-stage studies is also falling. Patient enrollment levels are increasing, which in turn has led to a significant rise in the average number of sites involved in each trial.

Global trial programs have the longest average recruitment window, despite having the lowest recruitment period per enrollee among other trial locations. Phase III trials conducted outside North America are associated with the longest recruitment and relative recruitment periods.