How COVID-19 Is Transforming Perceptions And Approaches To Clinical Research

By Tom Zietlow and Aman Khera

The COVID-19 pandemic has forever changed our perceptions of clinical research—but how has it changed them? That was the underlying question in a recent two-part survey of C-Suite executives.

The Biopharma Confidence Index (BCI)¹ has measured confidence in the biopharma industry’s economy among C-Suite executives since 2015. Coincidentally, the newest BCI survey launched in November 2019, before COVID-19 was fully identified. With the emergence of COVID-19 and the implementation of lockdowns across the globe, the survey team took advantage of the unique opportunity to conduct a second assessment in April-May 2020.

Both surveys asked an identical set of 259 questions. The executives polled work for biopharma companies with facilities in the United States, Europe, and the Asia-Pacific region. Examining their opinions pre-COVID-19 (n=113) and again in the midst of the pandemic (n=133) revealed several interesting shifts, most notably:

• Higher confidence in the positive impact of digital health technologies on the industry in the next 12 months—up from 11 percent to 36 percent.
• Increased confidence in the positive impact of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) in the next 12 months—up from 11 percent to 25 percent.
• Growing confidence that real-world evidence (RWE) capability will increase significantly—up from 17 percent to 29 percent.
• Reduced confidence in the positive impact of the regulatory landscape in the next 12 months—down from 53 percent to 28 percent.

By taking a deeper look into what fuels these attitude shifts, we gain a clearer picture of how COVID-19 may transform the industry.