HORSHAM, Pa.--Acurian, Inc., a leading, full-service provider of global patient enrollment and retention solutions, announced today that recent clinical trial data demonstrate its proprietary patient engagement solutions had a substantial positive impact on patient participation and trial cost.
According to Roger Smith, Acurian's senior vice president of global clinical operations, the data were derived from the interactive voice response system (IVRS) of a large, gout outcomes study spanning five years and up to 19 visits.
"Our statisticians looked at the contingent of patients who did and did not participate in our optional patient engagement and retention program," Smith explained. "Acurian patients stayed in the study more than twice as long as non-participants. Moreover, the dropout rate for non-participants after two years in the study was nearly 10 percent. In the same time period, patients in Acurian's program dropped out at less than 2 percent."
Smith further indicated that Acurian's services helped the sponsor save an estimated $5 million in patient costs that would have been lost if the Acurian contingent had dropped out at the higher rates. More importantly, the study team preserved a larger patient pool from which to collect critical endpoint data.
"Sponsors have been looking for hard evidence to show that patient engagement services have a positive impact on clinical trial retention and participation rates," Smith said. "These data represent more than 7,000 patients and clearly demonstrate the efficacy of Acurian's services beyond patient recruitment and enrollment."
The company indicated that more than 5,000 patients are currently participating in Acurian patient engagement programs in 55 countries.
Further detail surrounding these data will be part of a webinar on September 12 hosted by Richard Malcolm, Ph.D., Acurian's executive vice president and general manager. Information and complimentary registration are available at: www.business-review-webinars.com/webinar/Pharma/Revealing_the_True_Value_of_Patient_Recruitment-7rwyJCM1
About Acurian
Acurian, a subsidiary of PPD, is a leading full-service provider of clinical trial patient enrollment and retention solutions for the life sciences industry. The company increases the enrollment performance of investigator sites worldwide by identifying, contacting, prescreening and referring people who live in the local community but are unknown to a research site. As a result, trial sponsors complete enrollment without incurring the unexpected expense of adding sites or time.
About PPD
PPD is a leading global contract research organization providing drug discovery, development, lifecycle management and laboratory services. Our clients and partners include pharmaceutical, biotechnology, medical device, academic and government organizations. With offices in 46 countries and more than 12,500 professionals worldwide, PPD applies innovative technologies, therapeutic expertise and a commitment to quality to help clients and partners accelerate the delivery of safe and effective therapeutics and maximize the returns on their R&D investments. For more information, visit www.ppdi.com.
Except for historical information, all of the statements, expectations and assumptions, including statements, expectations and assumptions about Acurian's patient engagement services, contained in this news release are forward-looking statements that involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Although PPD attempts to be accurate in making these forward-looking statements, it is possible that future circumstances might differ from the assumptions on which such statements are based and could cause actual results to differ materially from the forward-looking statements. Other important factors that could cause future results to differ materially include the following: rapid technological advances that make our services less competitive; competition in the outsourcing industry; the ability to attract, integrate and retain key personnel; compliance with drug development regulations; changes in the regulation of the drug development process; overall global economic conditions; economic conditions, research and development spending, and outsourcing trends in the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and government-sponsored research sectors; consolidation in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries; PPD's ability to win new business; loss, delay or modification of large contracts; higher-than-expected cancellation rates; the rate of conversion of backlog into revenue; actual operating performance; risks associated with and dependence on strategic relationships; risks associated with acquisitions and investments; and the ability to control SG&A spending. PPD assumes no obligation and expressly disclaims any duty to update these forward-looking statements in the future, except as required by applicable law. These forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing PPD's estimates or views as of any date subsequent to the date hereof.