EXCLUSIVE: ClearTrial targets site, trial costs in product upgrade

ClearTrial today releases version 3.2 of its PLAN, SOURCE, and TRACK products, aimed at addressing global clinical trials and the increasing complexity of trials in general. The upgrade is all about user control--"more granular control" over the clinical assumptions that drive study cost, resource demand, and timelines.

Version 3.2 targets a variety of company sizes, says ClearTrial VP Andrew Grygiel, in a phone interview. "We're finding differences in the level of granularity they want to control studies. The level depends on the expertise they have in house; their practices and processes."

The upgrade also tweaks forecasting accuracy, he says, improving on the previous version's 1 percent to 5 percent benchmarked accuracy compared with actual study costs.

Enhancements include flexible enrollment specification, including global and region-specific definition of study enrollment period and distribution. Distribution data detail now reaches the weekly level.

"People want to drill down to a specific site and control parameters there," Grygiel says.

The site approval forecasting function also has been enhanced, as have the functions of pass-through cost definition (now available for study and location levels, driven by specific study milestones, and distributed based on pre-defined distribution curves), country-specific industry intelligence, and global currency support.

ClearTrial in late February unveiled its Study Costing & Optimization Service, a turn-key offering that provides small biotechs a window into clinical trial costs, resources, and timelines, as we reported. The service leverages core ClearTrial solution capabilities. "When we expand the product, we expand the service offering," says Grygiel. "We're providing more levers and dials to optimize studies."