CVS offers new clinical trials services

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Logical Solution

Clinical trials are fundamental to the creation of new drugs and medical devices. Once out of the lab, these must be proven to be safe and effective over a large sample of subjects. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will demand large amounts of data from these trials before letting a new drug or device onto the market.

However, under 4 percent of Americans have taken part in a clinical trial and around 30 percent of these drop out before the end of the trial. In fact, a dismaying 80 percent of all clinical trials fall short of their planned subject populations.

In an attempt to change this situation, CVS Health has opened a new Clinical Trial Service branch that will use both analytics and local contacts in communities to generate larger numbers of clinical trial subjects; move clinical trial locations to CVS stores and subjects’ homes; and provide retrospective and prospective studies based on these innovations. The new business will offer decentralized options for late-stage clinical trials and studies.

According to Troyen A. Brennan, M.D., MPH, executive vice president and chief medical officer of CVS Health, “With the exception of the COVID-19 phenomenon, on average less than 5 percent of the U.S. population participates in a clinical trial year over year.1 That’s because the current clinical trial process in the United States is hampered by long-standing structural challenges. These include difficulty finding large, diverse groups of qualified individuals who can commit to months or even years of participating in a trial, lack of consumer access to local clinical trials, difficulty scaling programs, and unexpected delays in starting clinical trials. Together, these issues create a slow, inefficient system for delivering life-changing treatments to those who need them.”

Dr. Breannan said, “One of the biggest barriers to an effective, efficient clinical trial process is lack of access to diverse populations. The biopharma industry continues to struggle to engage racial and ethnic minorities, women and the elderly. This is particularly problematic because without appropriately diverse participant populations, the trial outcomes will not represent what would happen in the real world.”

He added, "Traditionally low patient enrollment, diversity and engagement coupled with inconvenient trial sites, challenging study participation requirements, including the length of participation, show the need to improve the current model – particularly in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Combining clinical trial expertise from across the CVS Health enterprise with our growing connection to the communities we serve, will help create a new clinical trial experience that works better for participants, health care providers, clinical research organizations and study sponsors."

CVS Health collaborated with drug developers to participate in the development of COVID-19 vaccines by using its own digital model and screening processes to generate more than 300,000 subjects who were then connected to two vaccine trials. The new business will now expand these services. The company believes that the new business is uniquely positioned to continue delivering research solutions for COVID-19 and beyond with its community presence, data capabilities and health care expertise.

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