ClinicalTrials.EU platform rolled out across Europe

LONDON, UK. September 25th, 2024 - The European Clinical Trials Information Network (ClinicalTrials.EU) has today announced its official rollout across the continent. 

The patient-centric platform aims to solve one of the biggest challenges in medical and pharmaceutical research - the recruitment of suitable patients. It will do this by democratising patient access to clinical trials and arming them with the latest, most comprehensive information on current trials in seven European languages. 

Currently, over 15,500 clinical trials are registered in Europe in the pre-recruitment or recruitment phase. However, as many as 80 percent of them will have problems obtaining or maintaining a sufficient sample, leading to delays, increased costs or abandonment of the project. On the flipside, 86% of patients are not captured by the traditional clinical trial recruitment model [3]. ClinicalTrials.EU provides a credible and trustworthy link between researchers and patients. Research information is aggregated from multiple public and commercial sources and conveyed in an understandable, engaging and patient-friendly way.

Founder, Dr. Łukasz Izbicki, previously founded Farmacja.net Group, which was taken over last year by IQVIA, a global supplier of advanced analytical and technological solutions for the pharmaceutical sector. He said, of the project: “Our mission at ClinicalTrials is simple. To connect research centers actively working on rare and serious diseases and illnesses with patients actively seeking appropriate therapies and create “Clinical Trials: Easily Understood”. 

“Until now there has been no single place where both parties could meet with confidence and find comprehensive information in a number of different languages. This has been a huge barrier in the development of treatments, as often, the absolute numbers of patients for rare diseases might be very small and geographically diverse and it can be challenging to locate and engage with them. As many as 80% of trials face challenges with patient recruitment.”

Recruiting patients for clinical trials is ineffective and expensive: often researchers rely on existing patient databases or referrals from doctors in their networks. This can mean many potential patients missing out on suitable trials. ClinicalTrials.eu aims to democratise access by putting the power in the hands of the patient and allowing them to find the best treatment with the help of AI pre-screening. This in turn, effectively gives researchers access to patients who have self-selected and therefore more likely to be suitable for the trials. 

The acceleration of the recruitment process means trials can be implemented faster and the path to innovative therapies coming to market is also made quicker and easier. It also opens the way to decentralized research, allowing most or all research processes to be transferred to the patient's home. This is especially important for people who cannot, for various reasons, participate in a clinical trial conducted in another city or country. 

This model has only recently appeared on the European market, but represents almost 25% of the clinical trials market in the US due to the convenience of patients, significant savings for sponsors, and the facilitation of the recruitment process.

The European clinical trials market market in this area was valued at over USD 6 billion in 2023 and, according to forecasts, it will reach USD 9.6 billion by 2029 with an average annual growth rate in 2024-2029 (CAGR) of 7%.

In the first six months when the platform was still in beta phase, it had already attracted considerable support and traction within the industry. It is now listed among major market players in partnership with NORD - US Rare Disease Organization and is a member of the EU Cross Border Clinical Trials Initiative (EU-X-CT) a joint EU Parliament and EFPICA (business) initiative. It also co-operates with a number of Patients’ Advocacy Groups, is working with the  Polish Medical Research Agency and partnering with academic sites on non commercial trials, as well as co-operating commercially with Sponsors, CROs and Sites.

Dr Izbicki added: “We are excited at the amount of traction we have already seen prior to a formal rollout. And this is just the start! Currently, we aggregate data for the database from publicly available sources, we have enabled individual sponsors and research centers to post information about their projects on the platform. We have acquired the first commercial customers in this area and we are seeing huge interest in this area. 

“By the end of the year, we plan to start working with the 30 largest CROs (Contract Research Organizations) globally, which represent around 10 percent of the clinical trials market. Our mission is to increase access to clinical trials for patients who, for various reasons, are not treated as effectively as they could be.”

Prof. Wojciech Fendler, Head of the Polish Medical Research Agency concluded: "Clinical trials are critical for developing new therapies, and the success of recruitment depends on providing both patients and researchers with a unified platform as ClinicalTrials.eu that facilitates access to information and collaboration, which until now has been scattered across various sources." 

ENDS