Patients are our partners

Last week we attended Patients As Partners – Europe to be part of the important patient-led conversation happening in the industry. Understanding the patient experience is an incredibly important element of a successful trial. It has been reported that medicines developed with patient preferences and input early on, showed a 10-20% increase in the likelihood of launch compared to medicines without this approach. Conversely, not involving patients early in development increases the risk of a failed trial.

During this two-day event, Sponsor companies shared their ideas on how to make participation in clinical trials more suitable for patients – humanizing their protocols and way of thinking. Presentations focused on internal initiatives that are results of years of research and patient input. Sponsors are continuing to explore ways to bridge the gap between industry thinking and patient thinking, for instance, patients attending the conference gave feedback that they would like to see results from the study they took part in. This was a glaring reminder that we need to treat patients as humans and not just as subjects.

Not only are Sponsors looking to increase patient input but also patient diversity in clinical trials – how can we increase access for patient populations that may not live near a site or may not have the right people or information in their path? This is a call for giving trial naïve sties an opportunity to participate in trials and providing patients with the right educational tools. While we agree this needs to be done, this is not a job that just one man can do, this will need to be a collaboration between several businesses and patient groups to make this a reality.

Our CEO, Graham Wylie participated on a panel “Multi-Stakeholder Perspectives on Designing a Trial to Fit a Patient’s Lifestyle” and emphasized that while there was a lot of discussion around what we can do in the future, there is work being done in the present. For instance, MRN is operating clinical trials from the communities in which patients live – reducing the burden a trial has on the lives of patients and caregivers.

Patient advocates provoked audience engagement on how they would design the ideal trial:

What would it include and why?
What would make a huge difference for patients?
Giving and getting feedback preferences
Who in the audience would be willing to implement something as a result of hearing these points?

One patient advocate pleaded to the sponsor companies in the room, “make the trial as convenient as possible, like in my own home”.

We are proud to be part of the conversation and the solution. MRN continues to demonstrate our commitment to innovating for patients by creating community clinical trials.

We would like to thank all of those that shared their experiences, thoughts, solutions and research. We look forward to continuing our conversations with our pharma and patient partners. If you are a patient or represent a patient group and want to learn more about MRN, please contact Marketing@themrn.co.uk.

Sources: : https://theconferenceforum.org/conferences/patients-as-partners-europe/overview/