ABPI calls for shake-up of medicine development model

A replacement must be found for high-cost, high-risk phase III studies of clinical trials, the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry has said.

Such studies, which broaden out the clinical trial to a much larger group of patients, often do not reflect clinical practice and should be replaced with trials built around patients selected from existing healthcare databases, the ABPI says in its report Reengineering Medicines Development, published on 5 March.

The report also says that real-time analysis of patients, via wearable devices and smartphone uploads, could reduce development time and allow for early termination if the investigation proves futile.