New technologies will challenge the current drug development paradigm, and regulations will have to innovate and keep pace. Such innovation will require support from Congress and federal funding, said Research!America board member Sudip Parikh, Ph.D., senior vice president and managing director of DIA Americas, at the congressional briefing “Innovation Intersection” hosted by Research!America on June 12, 2017.
Parikh joined experts in basic science, clinical and translational research, and patient advocacy who also discussed innovations that are improving clinical research.
“Many clinical trials from 30 years ago had few minorities and few women,” Parikh said. “Now [diversity] is incorporated into how clinical trials are run.”
Research!America board member Victor Dzau, M.D., president of the National Academy of Medicine, said researchers must also begin focusing on segments of the population, rather than the entire population, when developing treatments.
Patty Fritz, M.S., vice president of U.S. Corporate Affairs at UCB, echoed Dzau’s statement. “There’s no such thing as an average patient,” she said. “We need to solve for [each patient’s] unique challenges in order to provide targeted, personalized solutions.”
John Hubbard, Ph.D., FCP, chairman of the Association of Clinical Research Organizations, and president and CEO of Bioclinica, stressed that the high cost of clinical trials must also be addressed. “It’s about $2.5 billion to bring a drug to market,” he said. “We need to begin moving the needle to bring the cost down or [a] generation of new drugs is at risk.”
Click here to view photos from the event.