AstraZeneca Jumps On e-Recruitment Bandwagon

As recruitment becomes a more difficult and time-consuming task in the industry, pharma companies have begun searching for alternative methods to speed up clinical trial recruitment in order to ensure drugs get through clinical trial programs more quickly. Indeed, one such solution was announced last week when AstraZeneca and Trialbee partnered up to recruit patients for clinical trials using Trialbee’s web-based software solution.

According to Jenny Skogsberg, Clinical Development Manager at AstraZeneca, the company chose to explore e-recruitment options because a web-based, “direct-to-patient approach…enables patients to easily engage in clinical trials.” Patient-centricity is slowly becoming a buzz word in the industry, and e-recruitment appears to be one of the solutions sponsors and CROs alike are exploring in order to ensure trials successfully enroll, retain, and engage patients throughout the study’s duration.

Trialbee and AstraZeneca Agreement

The service agreement between Trialbee and AstraZeneca calls for Trialbee to assist AstraZeneca in quickly recruiting trial participants for global recruitment, multiple therapeutic areas, and for the range of study phases. Financial terms of the arrangement were not disclosed.

Trialbee’s solution in particular allows patients to explore ongoing research areas and facilitates the connection to researchers. Founders Tobias Folkesson and Jonas Billing and its 12 employees in Lund, Sweden developed the technology in collaboration with contract research organizations (CROs), pharmaceutical companies, and patient advocacy groups.

Online Trends

AstraZeneca’s contract with Trialbee for online recruitment is part of a larger, industry-wide migration to online recruitment methods. Ms. Skogsberg stated that online recruitment is a growing trend and follows the growing incidence of patients searching online for treatment information. Efforts to harness digital media include commercial solutions, like Trialbee’s, point of care solutions, and social media.

Commercial software solutions often use algorithms and parameters to identify patients according to disease or condition, geographic location, and time availability. In particular, one neutral entity, ACRES, has been working recently to bring industry together in its Information Technology (IT) platform to improve the safety, quality, and efficiency of clinical trials.

Recently, a point of care study conducted by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) in the UK found that using a patient’s electronic health records (EHR) is a viable solution to identify eligible patients. The study also found that health care providers are willing to participate in this method of trial recruitment. However, recruiting physicians and processing paperwork was a stumbling block.

Social media is also increasingly attractive, though social media usage in the industry is still cautious at best given the lack of official FDA guidance. However, this hasn’t kept some countries from integrating the social media platforms into their recruitment initiatives. For example, New Zealand recently released new guidance  for industry in its usage of social media, including Facebook and Twitter. Similarly, the UK’s Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) announced that it is in the process of developing an application (app) for adverse drug reaction (ADR) reporting, which also includes capturing patient feedback on the social media channels.