The COVID-19 pandemic has forced all the stakeholders in the clinical trial ecosystem to explore decentralised trials as an alternative to conventional procedures.
GlobalData has conducted a survey to identify the biggest perceived benefits of DCTs for future users in North America, Europe, Asia Pacific (APAC) and Rest of World (RoW) regions.
Perceived Benefits of Decentralised Trials for Future Users by Geography
An analysis of the survey results shows that the respondents in North America and Europe expect that DCTs will lead to greater participation by patients.
Around 20% of the respondents from North America and 19% from Europe opined that switching to decentralised trial will encourage patient participation. The figure stood at 11% for APAC and 10% for RoW.
A quarter of respondents from the RoW region feel that DCT will increase participation by sites in clinical trials. The percentage drops to 16% in APAC and to 15% in North America and Europe.
Around 20% from RoW said that it allows clinical trials to run amid the Covid-19 pandemic. It is followed by Europe (17%), North America (11%) and APAC (11%).
The perceived benefit of improved access to suitable trial patients was selected by 16% in APAC, 14% in North America, 12% in Europe and 10% in RoW.
Approximately 15% of respondents in RoW said that transitioning to DCT will enable different study designs relying more on real world data and higher data volume from devices that fixed investigator visit primary endpoints. Around 11% respondents from APAC and 10% each from Europe and North America shared similar opinion.
Another 16% of surveyed companies from APAC believe that decentralised trials will lead to improved data quality due to near time data collection and automation. The figure stood at 10% in RoW, 9% in North America and 8% in Europe.
Furthermore, around 11% respondents from APAC stated that it will reduce trial costs. In North America, Europe and APAC, the figure was 9%, 8% and 5% respectively.
Europe ranked the highest at 8%, with the opinion that DCTs reduces trial deadline, followed by North America (7%) and APAC (5%).
The other expected benefits were less complexity in running studies at sites and reduced technical complexity in using study related systems, led by Europe and RoW at 4% and 5% respectively.
The analysis is based on responses received from the GlobalData Coronavirus Survey – COVID-19 and Decentralised Clinical Trials fielded between 04 June and 22 June 2020.
