The importance of Patient Retention in

Clinical Trials

Patient-centric trials recruit double the number of patients in almost half the time. The drug is also 19% more likely to reach market, according to a recent study by The Economic Intelligence Unit, 2018. Despite this, only 44% of medical professionals believe their companies will adopt patient-centric trial practices in the future.

Research indicates the market value for pharma will hit $65.2 billion by 2025, yet clinical organisations experience huge issues when it comes to recruiting and retaining patients. The typical trial extends recruitment by 71%, costing sponsors millions, and more than two-thirds of trials fail to meet their goal. This is, in part, due to high patient drop-out rates, which can be prevented by better support of patients and their carers throughout the whole clinical journey.

patientprimary has conducted research to explore the challenges patients face and the measures we can take to prevent them. The Importance of Patient Retention

The average cost of developing just one drug is $2.6 billion, and sponsors lose between $600,000 and $8 million every day the trial is delayed. While recent research shows the average time it takes to take a drug through to market has decreased, the rate of success is just 12%, almost half of what it was ten years ago.

Increasingly complex clinical study designs and the growing demand for larger and more diverse pools have made it harder to find eligible clinical trial participants, and two-thirds of study sites fail to meet their enrolment goal for a given trial. Approximately 20% of cancer clinical trials fail because of inadequate patient recruitment.

More than ever, pharmaceutical research needs to focus on patient retention to boost recruitment rates and ensure the overall success of a clinical study. To do this, it’s important to focus on the individual, stepping away from a one-size-fits-all approach that often leaves patients feeling undervalued.

Reasons for Patient Drop-outs

A deeper understanding of individual situations can help researchers think about strategies to overcome the challenges patients face. While some drop-outs are due to unforeseeable circumstances, others are preventable. Patients have the right to discontinue participation in clinical trials at any time, for any reason, but there are some common reasons patients cite for dropping out.

A few of the reasons patients drop-out:

Inconvenient location

Schedule conflicts

Physically unable to travel to site

Financial constraints

Lack of appreciation

Forgetting visits

Fear and anxiety

Misunderstood expectation

Delay in getting paid / expenses reimbursed

A survey conducted by mdgroup shows that half of all clinical trials have experienced patient drop-outs because of travel difficulties.

patientprimary relies on its in-house travel agency, mdtravel, to respond to the growing need to take care of patients from the moment they leave their house to start the trial. We’re responsible for the booking and management of thousands of journeys through the drug development lifecycle, for Investigators, Site Staff and KOLs, as well as the clinical trial patients.

Delays in expense reimbursement have also been linked to patient drop-outs. We provide timely bank transfers, pre-paid plastic cards, stipends and meal vouchers to prevent finances having a negative impact on patients during the study process.

20% of the typical 30% of patients drop-outs can be avoided.

How can we help reduce patient drop-out rates?

patientprimary offers a range of services to help reduce the problems experienced by patients. This in turn helps boost recruitment and retention rates and goes some way to ensuring a more cost-effective, successful study.

Inconvenience clearly influences patients drop-out rates in clinical trials. We aim to tackle this by:

• Creating an impeccable, stress-free patient experience – we pride ourselves on providing a highly personalised service with a fast response time

• Going above and beyond to support patients – we are available around the clock to respond to any concerns or questions patients have and to allay their anxieties

• Building patient confidence from the outset – we see it as our role to partner with you seamlessly and create long lasting patient relationships

• Interpreting and Translation - we support global studies and we have our own translation division mdtranslate

• Bespoke transportation - this include ambulances and special medical vehicles

• Bespoke reports for the patients to navigate the hospital and the surrounding area easily

Bring the trial to the patient

The burden of site visits has been cited as a key reason for patients drop-outs. Three-quarters of clinical trials have at least one site visit which could be carried out in a patient’s home, school or place of work.

Our home nursing service, patientprimary @home, is a global network of fully-qualified research nurses with the aim of:

• Reducing investigator/site costs

• Removing stress of travel

• Reducing impact of patient and family

• Reducing travel costs

• Boosting recruitment and retention rates

Data Capture, Analysis, & Reporting for Patient Retention

As clinical trials become more data-driven, we must listen more attentively to the patient for “actionable” data. mdtechnology is our own specialist division for tailored technology solutions.

Our system and mobile app, Primarius, is positioned to proactively capture patient sentiments, evaluating key information around how they feel and their experience of each stage of a clinical trial, and turning this into “actionable” data. This means you can intervene before a patient decides to leave your clinical trial.

putting patients at the heart of the clinical trial

www.mdgroup.com

Contact us today for more information

Global HeadquartersUnited Kingdom - LondonBuilding 329, Doncastle Road Bracknell, Berkshire RG12 8PE. UKT: +44 (0) 1344 300 808

Regional Headquarters North America - Philadelphia575 East Swedesford RoadSuite 101Wayne, PA 19087. USAT: +1 (610) 825 2660

European Union - DublinOrmond Building, Third Floor 31-36 Ormond Quay Upper Dublin 7, D07 EE37. Rep. of IrelandT: +353 (0) 1 526 6822

Asia Pacific - Singapore1 Raffles Place, Tower 2 #20-61Singapore, 048616.Rep. of SingaporeT: +65 67155620

• Creating bespoke written educational material (on line) and a recruitment platform

• Providing written information to patients

• Educating patients about the trial before asking for their consent

• Streamlining the recruitment process, i.e. through a simple questionnaire for the patients

• Taking the time to answer patient questions.

What our customers are saying

Abeona, a fully integrated gene and cell therapy company has been utilising our patient retention services over six studies since 2017.

We have had a wonderful experience with patientprimary. As a small pharmaceutical

company focusing on rare pediatric diseases we have very specific (and frequently changing) needs for the families participating in our clinical trials. patientprimary has been a tremendous help coordinating payments for families in multiple languages and countries, helping us to seamlessly navigate the many challenges of a multinational trial with a special needs population.”

Primarius functionality

Primarius has been designed with the patient in mind. It reduces the stress of getting to and from hospital visits and can be tailored to suit the requirements of the study, no matter how big or small.

Key functionality includes:

Travel – make travel requests and manage trips

Receipts – add receipts and view claim status

Expense claims – claim expenses and get paid

Trial visits – view all information about upcoming visits

Transactional & Operational data

We capture transactional data, specifically travel and accommodation as well out-of-pocket reimbursement costs, and compare these costs against your budget. Since costs can fluctuate due to patient travel delays, we can flag a cost excursion above your budget threshold before it becomes critical. Data analysis should come to you rather than you having to interrogate the system to discover retrospectively that your budget, or your patient, is in trouble.

Digital Recruitment

50% of trials are delayed due to patient recruitment issues, while some trials struggle to find any patients to begin the trial at all, incurring a massive cost with no potential to recoup this loss with a successful trial.

We support you with patient recruitment by:

• Determining factors that encourage patients to enter studies