finding the needle in the haystack just got easier.

Transcription

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APRIL/MAY 2016
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Volume 25 Number 4/5 April/May 2016
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Fixing Protocol-Amendment Burden
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The Keys to Precision Medicine
April/May 2016
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3
CONTENTS
VOLUME 25, N UMBER 4/5
COVER STORY
How Biosimulation Can
Predict Drug Success
COMSTOCK/GETTY IMAGES
18
J.F. Marier, Trevor N. Johnson, Suzanne Minton
Pediatric trials now feature increased modeling and
analytics for safer drug dosing and response.
COMMENTARY
CLINICAL TRIALS COMMUNITY
TRIAL DESIGN
VIEW FROM BRUSSELS
6 APPLIED CLINICAL TRIALS ONLINE
10 New Policy Could Temper
Europe’s Data-Disclosure Debate
8 NEWS
26 Value-Based Planning &
Drug Development Productivity
Peter O’Donnell
48 BUSINESS AND PEOPLE
Frederic L. Sax, MD, Marla Curran,
DrPH, Sarah Athey, Christoph
Schnorr, MD, Martin Gouldstone
CLINICAL TRIAL INSIGHTS
MARKETPLACE
16 The Impact of Protocol
Amendments On Cycle Time
How to integrate evidence-based
planning and real-world evidence to
boost clinical trial productivity.
49 CLASSIFIED
Kenneth A. Getz
42 Overcoming Early Phase
Oncology Challenges
A CLOSING THOUGHT
50 The Promise of
Precision Medicine
Steve Rosenberg
CRO/SPONSOR
Karen Ivester
36 Imagining the Impossible:
Immunity to Cancer
How to meet the rigorous safety and
efficacy demands critical to evaluating
newer targeted cancer therapies.
Chris Smyth, PhD
The smaller biopharmaceutical
company perspective on mastering
oncology immunotherapy clinical trials.
OUR MISSION
Applied Clinical Trials is the authoritative, peer-reviewed resource and thought leader for the global community that designs,
initiates, manages, conducts, and monitors clinical trials. Industry professionals learn effective and efficient solutions
to strategic and tactical challenges within the tightly regulated, highly competitive pharmaceutical environment.
4
April/May 2016
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WEB CONTENTS
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4
S
ite Staff Ranking
of Sponsor-Driven
Training Platforms
Average of preferred rankings
3.5
Social Media
3
2.5
Do you follow us on Twitter
or have joined our LinkedIn
group? Here’s our most
popular content from both.
2
1.5
1
0.5
0
Face-to-face meetings
Self-directed online
education modules
WebEx/teleconferences
Paper materials (e.g.,
pamphlets, newsletters,
and product
Monographs)
Training platforms
Source: Site Staff Perspective Survey, Axon Clinical Services,
bit.ly/1Rp7urW
eLearning
eBooks
Our latest update on Risk-Based Monitoring
in Clinical Trials is now available for free
download. The fourth edition includes features on current trends, employee support,
and more. Download a copy at http://bit.
ly/1PDo2XA. If you are interested in trials
in Asia-Pacific, then Applied Clinical Trials’
CTMS: What You Should Know
F
or several years, increasing numbers of life
sciences organizations have implemented
a clinical trial management system (CTMS)
that can provide insights gleaned from the
system’s data to gain early and increased visibility into problems, progress, and possibilities. Many organizations have a constant need
to expand CTMS capabilities, integrate clinical operations data across multiple systems,
and update clinical trial processes—all in
order to adapt to changing regulatory requirements and clinical trial practices. This is the
dilemma facing clinical operations executives
when selecting a CTMS solution to manage
clinical trials—go with an existing approach/
solution or explore alternative options.
eBook, Planning Successful Clinical Trials
in the APAC Region, is for you. Get your free
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Webcasts
Bookmark http://bit.ly/1pI7tEL for our popular webcasts, upcoming as well as those
available on-Demand.
A CTMS can reassure clinical operations
executives that “you know what you should
know.” It transcends organizational boundaries, improves interoperability, and addresses
evolving regulatory standards.
Systems can maintain and manage clinical trial planning, preparation, performance,
and reporting, with an emphasis on keeping
up-to-date contact information for trial participants and tracking deadlines and milestones (e.g., for securing regulatory approval,
distributing drug supplies, or issuing progress
reports).
Typically, a CTMS provides data to a business intelligence (BI) system, which acts as a
digital dashboard for clinical trial managers.
Twitter:
1. Study Coordinators
Prefer Paper COA
bit.ly/1ojF7jc
2. Time to Re-Think ECGs?
bit.ly/1QKZjYG
3. Califf Seeks Trials That
Inform Labels
bit.ly/1XfGsn7
LinkedIn:
1. Good Risk Management
Starts at the Site
bit.ly/1PDoBRn
2. BioCelerate for
Preclinical Collaboration
bit.ly/1Wcw8fj
3. DCRI: Limited Use of
Open Trial Data
bit.ly/1UKmiUm
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6
April/May 2016
You are
the person
Who contacted
the expert
Who sourced
the drug
That was
transported
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Running a clinical trial requires close
collaboration between many different people.
But however complex the process, we never
lose sight of our objective – to help you bring lifesaving
medicines to market.
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NEWS
VIEW FROM WASHINGTON
Califf: More Informative Clinical Research Key to Drug Development
mong the multiple items on the “todo” list of new FDA Commissioner
Robert Califf is to make clinical research more efficient and reliable to accelerate the development of safe and
effective treatments for patients. Califf has long advocated for a “learning
healthcare system” that taps electronic
health records to facilitate clinical trial
design and enrollment, and to provide
ongoing information on the effects and
side effects of therapies in real-world
use. Now Califf has a ready platform to
promote such strategies to further precision medicine and expedited approval of
innovative medical products.
In a March appearance before a Senate Appropriations subcommittee to discuss FDA’s requested budget for fiscal
year 2017, Califf noted the agency’s success in approving more innovative drugs
for market, many facilitated by expedited
review programs and patient engagement in product development. His testimony cited efforts to refine clinical trial
design and statistical methods of analysis, and to utilize advances in genomics and information technology to gain
“more rapid, less expensive and more reliable answers about medical products”
(see http://1.usa.gov/1pj7Kys).
Most of the hearing, though, focused
on the many other FDA activities important to the legislators, from effective
monitoring of the nation’s food supply
to halting the lethal abuse of opioids
(see page 13). Other top priorities for
FDA involve tobacco regulation, combating antibiotic resistance, reducing highrisk drug compounding, and developing
medical countermeasures to Ebola and
Zika. Califf promised to soon issue guidances and regulations to further biosimilar development and to better manage
FDA’s IT infrastructure. He also will have
to seek Congressional backing for multi-
A
8
ple new user fee proposals now being finalized by FDA and industry task forces.
During his confirmation process, Califf pledged that he would not lower FDA’s
standards in evaluating the safety and
efficacy of drugs and medical devices in
response to challenges from legislators
who feared that his ties to pharma would
bias him towards industry. And while he
avoids discussing drug prices, he recognizes that FDA can promote drug access by bringing more generic drugs to
market, and that good information about
medical product risks and benefits can
support those who make coverage decisions.
Califf’s expertise in biomedical research should help him tackle these
and other difficult regulatory and policy
issues, as seen in his activity as FDA
deputy commissioner for the past year.
At a December 2015 FDA workshop on
enhancing the collection and assessment of clinical data on diverse patient
subgroups, he described the challenges
in managing trials to generate such data.
He recently opened a meeting of FDA’s
Science Board that was called to advise
the agency on the development and regulation of medical treatments for pain,
where new product research is important for lowering opioid abuse.
A blog posted on FDA’s website in
February cites progress in clarifying
terms and definitions related to the development of biomarkers and other tools
needed to advance biomedical research
and inform clinical trials. And last October, the commissioner endorsed an
FDA report on coordinating the review of
combination products, a hot topic in the
biomedical research community. Cancer
advocates have been pressing for a new
entity to coordinate the development
and oversight of cancer therapies and
diagnostics, and Califf has said he will
establish such a center under the White
House Cancer Moonshot initiative.
At a March Institute of Medicine (IOM)
workshop on “Neuroscience Trials of the
Future,” Califf described some of the difficulties and opportunities facing FDA
and sponsors in achieving more effective
clinical studies on treatments for nervous
system disorders. In the “ideal world”
of a learning healthcare system, Califf
commented, sponsors and investigators
would conduct concept studies that lead
to informed clinical trials, and those results then would be used to write practice
guidelines and to guide more “real-world”
studies that, in turn, would provide more
evidence and refine practice.
Complexity and costs
Unfortunately, Califf sees the research
community opting for larger, more complex clinical trials, with the result that
costs are “going off the scale.” Investigators enroll fewer patients per site
because “we’re making things more
and more complex,” something that he
hopes FDA can address. He suggested
that trials stop running multiple blood
tests and collecting rare, non-serious
adverse events from all patients, which
“costs a ton of money.”
It’s not necessarily FDA that seeks
more data from larger studies, Califf
observed, but sponsors that shy away
from simplified studies—often to avoid
greater uncertainty. The challenge for
FDA, he said, is to develop study models
that all parties “feel good about.” FDA
can’t promise it will approve a new product if the researchers do things in a certain way, as there are “always surprises
with medical products,” he commented.
But the agency can assure, Califf said,
that it won’t come back later and say it
didn’t like that approach.
— Jill Wechsler
April/May 2016
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NEWS
To see more View From Brussels articles, visit
VIEW FROM BRUSSELS
Will EMA Rules Take Heat Out
of Transparency Debate?
New policy hopes
to calm the fervor
around clinical trial
data disclosure and
confidentiality issues
t’s a long-running battle, and the fat
lady still hasn’t sung, so it ain’t over
yet. But Europe moved one step
closer in March to quenching the
conflagration over transparency and
clinical trial data. A weighty document
running to nearly a hundred pages
appeared from the European Medicines
Agency (EMA), aiming to squeeze much
of the oxygen out of the debate that has
been raging for years about how much
information companies should disclose
about their products and their trials of
them. (view the report at http://bit.ly/1RsfIeS).
The guidance for the publication of
clinical data explains to everyone who
wants to know just how the agency is
going to operate its new system of
mandatory publication of data, and just
what requirements are to be imposed on
industry on submission of clinical data
for publication.
The new policy entered has been in
force since Jan. 1, 2015, in that it covers
the clinical reports contained in all
marketing-authorization applications
submitted from then onwards, but the
first actual reports to appear are—
because of the time-lag in processing
applications—currently likely to appear
only from this coming September.
One of the hot spots in the document
is the guidance on how to anonymize
clinical reports for publication, so as
to prevent any re-identification of trial
I
10
participants. Bowing to the inevitable,
given the wide range of methods
available, EMA recognizes that no one
method can be imposed, and permits
some freedom of approach. But it
gives recommendations to companies
on how to best balance data utility for
researchers with a minimal risk of reidentification, and companies will need
to provide a report explaining their
approach. That report will in turn be
reviewed and published by EMA.
But the real heat will be emitted by the
document’s approach to commercially
confidential information (CCI). Fierce
arguments over the very concept of CCI
have put drug companies (and regulators)
at odds with healthcare campaigners in
Europe, many of whom flatly refuse to
recognize the merits of any methodology
for identification and redaction of what
companies perceive as sensitive material.
In a scorched earth approach, the most
vocal campaigners reject any such rights,
and argue that the only ownership of such
data lies with the trial participants whose
involvement has generated the data.
EMA has trodden a middle path
of reason on the issue. It knows how
inflammable this discussion is, and how
determined industry critics are to pursue
the fullest access to information. So its
guidance makes clear that we are now
Peter O’Donnell
is a freelance journalist who
specializes in European
health affairs and is based
in Brussels, Belgium.
very much into open season for data
hunters.
“The vast majority of the information
contained in clinical reports is not
considered CCI,” it says. But “the vast
majority” is not the totality, and EMA
goes on to spell out its exceptions. It
defines CCI as “any information
contained in the clinical reports
submitted to EMA by the applicant
which is not in the public domain or
publicly available and where disclosure
may undermine the legitimate economic
interest of the applicant.” There are, it
says, “limited circumstances in which
clinical reports might contain CCI,” and
the data classified as CCI may indeed be
redacted (or, to put it plainly, lest this
column should be accused of unjustified
redaction, simply blacked out).
With masterful understatement,
the guidance document remarks: “It is
anticipated that the preparation and
publication of the documents will raise
some practical questions, such as on how
to apply the aforementioned redaction
principles, and on the presentation and
justification of the proposed redactions.”
Where redaction takes place,
companies will need to provide
justification to EMA. The guidance
clarifies which type of data EMA would
typically refuse as being CCI and how the
redaction of such data will be handled.
Its broad framework starts from the
principle that it will not accept redaction
of any information in the public domain
or that has no innovative features.
It will also frown upon attempts to
redact quality, non-clinical and clinical
data which it believes to be necessary
for the understanding of the rest of the
clinical report, thus making its disclosure
a matter of public interest. And the
agency helpfully supplies some real-life
examples of attempts that have already
been rejected to justify redaction of
material in reports.
So don’t waste any time with the
following arguments: “Unpublished
data—These study results have not been
published in any peered-reviewed [sic]
April/May 2016
NEWS
publication.” “Company confidential
information—Disclosure of these
elements will harm [the company]’s
commercial interests because it may
enable third-party access to businesscritical information.” “This information
can be interpreted out of context. Such
interpretation could lead to a misleading
image of the safety profile of the product.”
Clinical reports will be published at
the conclusion of regulatory decisionmaking in the centralized marketing
authorization procedures—irrespective
of whether the decision on a marketing
authorization application is positive or
not. The reports—with anonymization
and agreed redaction—will be published
by EMA on its corporate website, within
60 days of the final decision for marketing
authorization applications, line extension
applications, and extension of indication
applications. Where an application
is withdrawn, the publication of the
redacted/anonymized clinical reports
will take place within 150 days after the
receipt of the withdrawal letter.
The hope within EMA is that its
approach will damp down the debate and
allow attention to return to the content
of reports, rather than the processes for
April/May 2016
accessing the data they contain. The
agency has been engaged in extensive
consultation with all parties concerned
throughout 2015, and is cautiously
optimistic that its patient negotiation
has permitted a well-balanced set of
requirements to emerge that can satisfy
all sides.
Now that D-Day is approaching for
publishing the first reports under this
new dispensation, the agency is planning
to hold talks with the companies at the
front of the firing line—those for which
reports is only the first phase of the
agency’s CT transparency bid. While this
first phase deals only with publication
of clinical reports, a second phase will
deal with the still-more sensitive issue of
publishing individual patient data. But this
is still on the back burner; the agency says
that although it is committed to moving in
that direction, no dates have been set, and
it “will be implemented at a later stage.”
Ultimately, the success—or failure—of
this attempt to calm spirits on access to
trial data may depend more on emotion
Ultimately, the success—or failure—of this
attempt to calm spirits on access to trial data
may depend more on emotion than on logic.
the decision-making process has been
finalized since the policy entered into
force, and whose reports will constitute
the first wave of publication. It is also
planning a webinar in the late spring for
companies to raise outstanding practical
questions.
Further down the track, still more fiery
exchanges can still be expected, because
the scheme now starting to deliver real
than on logic. There are implacable views
among the most earnest advocates of
access to data, who recognize no claims
for exemption and who, in the style
of Wikileaks, demand full release of
everything all the time. A lengthy and
carefully-reasoned list of guidelines on
the right and wrong way of doing things
may not prove a sufficient response to
that type of argument.
11
NEWS
GLOBAL REPORT
EMA Releases New Advice on Human Trials for Cancer Drugs
he European Medicines Agency
(EMA) has published draft guidance
on the evaluation of anti-cancer medicines in humans.
The 39-page document, which was issued on March 15 and is open for feedback until September 15, covers all
stages of clinical development and addresses the development of treatments
for malignancies, including drug resistance modifiers or normal tissue protective compounds.
The agency is concerned that although
many anti-cancer compounds are being developed, companies have only obtained a marketing authorization for a
relatively small percentage of them due
to poor activity or evidence of a detrimental safety profile. Until non-clinical
models with good predictive properties
have been defined, this situation is unlikely to change, and the absence of such
models represents the greatest hurdle for
efficient drug development in the near
future, EMA noted.
A central aim of the document is to
promote the development of moleculespecific preclinical models to assess and
predict anticipated activity as well as
safety, which tends to be a standard approach used by developers of targeted
molecules. The validation and predictive
reliability of these models is a complex,
time-consuming, and specialist process
that requires tumor immunologists.
EMA has sought to classify compounds according to reasonable designs of exploratory studies. This applies to cytotoxic compounds where the
toxicity and overall response rate (ORR)
are thought to be suitable markers of
activity in dose-finding studies, compared with non-cytotoxic compounds
where ORR and/or toxicity may not
serve this purpose.
Importantly, intra-patient dose escalation in Phase 1 can allow more effective drug levels to be reached, provided
T
12
no toxicity is seen in two dosing cycles,
state the authors of the document. This
might help smaller biotech companies,
for example.
“The requirements of the characterization of the safety profile have changed
with the emergence of molecularly targeted agents, immunomodulating drugs,
and other non-cytotoxic agents. These
types of agents may have other types of
toxicity and are often dosed differently to
conventional chemotherapy,” they wrote.
“The dose-finding process and concepts
such as dose-limiting toxicity may, therefore, need to be addressed differently
than for standard cytotoxic agents.”
Moreover, cumulative incidences
by toxicity grade are not sufficient to
characterize the toxicity profile. The impact of an adverse drug reaction on the
benefit-risk balance may, for instance,
differ importantly depending on how
the incidence, prevalence, and severity
change with time on treatment, and on
the possibility to alleviate the reaction
by dose reduction.
Survival clues
EMA is urging companies to submit overall survival data compatible with a trend
towards favorable outcome to capture
potential negative effects on the activity of next-line therapies and treatmentrelated deaths. This approach is likely to
have consequences on interim analyses,
other than for futility, and cross-over,
which should be undertaken only when
available survival data provide the information needed for a proper evaluation of
benefits and risks, explained the authors.
As well as defining the appropriate
doses and schedules of a cancer drug,
the EMA emphasize’s the importance of
identifying a target population with optimized benefits and risks in the section
about exploratory studies. Advice is also
supplied about studies for combinations
of drugs with minimal activity, as well as
combinations of conventional cytotoxics.
No precise definition is given for either “trend towards favorable effects on
survival” or “reasonably excluding negative effects on overall survival,” but the
authors explain that if a major increase
in toxicity is foreseeable, it is recommended that confirmatory studies are
undertaken with the aim of showing
overall survival benefit. They acknowledge that improved safety without loss
in efficacy may constitute tangible aims
and the design of non-inferiority efficacy
studies.
The safety focus of the document has
added relevance in the light of the recent events of Zydelig, the PI3K inhibitor
made by Gilead Sciences. The drug is being investigated by EMA after reports of
serious side effects—including multiple
deaths—among patients in several studies testing Zydelig in newly diagnosed
leukemia and lymphoma. Gilead halted
those trials in March.
Earlier in March, EMA published
long-awaited guidance on how to comply with its policy on publication of
clinical data. The agency is moving toward the operational implementation of
its proactive publication policy, which
has launched a new era of transparency,
said Noël Wathion, the agency’s deputy
executive director.
The guidance will ensure that companies are aware of what is expected of
them and are ready for the publication of
these critical data, he added. EMA wants
to work with companies that are concerned by the first wave of publication
(i.e., those for which the decision-making
process has been finalized since the policy entered into force). EMA is organizing
a webinar in the second quarter of 2016
to allow companies to ask any outstanding practical questions. This webinar will
be a live broadcast and will be available
for future reference on the EMA website.
— Philip Ward
April/May 2016
NEWS
R EG U L ATO RY R E F O R M
FDA to Address Opioid Trial Challenges
DA is under tremendous pressure from
Congress, state officials, and the public health community to do more to
address the national epidemic of opioid
abuse that is causing thousands of deaths
and medical emergencies. But while patients and providers demand effective
treatments for chronic and acute pain,
the public wants safeguards to prevent
overdosing and misuse of these products.
Drug labels, boxed warnings, prescriber
education, and postapproval monitoring have not deterred abusers. Now FDA
leaders are implementing a new Action
Plan to address the problem more forcefully, and hopefully to quell critics on Capitol Hill and in the medical community.
One important element of the plan is
to encourage development of new, more
F
effective pain medications with abuse
deterrent (AD) properties, an issue addressed at a March meeting of the FDA
Science Board. FDA is reassessing how
it weighs risks and benefits in approving
opioid drugs and expanded use of its advisory committees is part of this process.
A main FDA strategy in recent years
has been to encourage development of
abuse-deterrent formulations (ADFs) of
opioids. Five products with AD claims
in labeling have been approved by the
agency, supported by guidance finalized in 2015 on what studies and data is
needed to support AD product development and approval. The Office of New
Drugs (OND) in the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER) is evaluating
some 30 active investigational new drugs
(INDs) for these products and other new
technologies.
Despite these efforts, many development programs for new pain medicines
fail, said Sharon Hertz, director of the
Division of Anesthesia, Analgesia and Addiction Products in OND. There are many
sources of variability in clinical analgesic
trials, which makes it very difficult to measure treatment effect, Hertz explained.
FDA seeks to address such R&D issues
through collaboration with academics,
health professionals, advocacy groups,
and industry. The aim is to gain consensus on standards for measuring pain intensity and on different outcomes in clinical studies and to optimize clinical trial
methods to increase study efficiency.
— Jill Wechsler
Another European Approach to Early Drug Access
ising concerns among Europe’s healthcare payers about the additional costs
of innovative medicines are doing
nothing to stem the tide of initiatives to
speed new products to the market.
The latest new scheme is the European
Medicines Agency’s “PRIME” (short for
“PRIority Medicines”), launched in March
“to strengthen support to accelerate medicines that target an unmet medical need.”
It will offer early advice to medicine developers so that they have the best chance
of producing robust data on benefits and
risks, and allow more rapid assessment.
Improved clinical trial designs should
ease data generation and the evaluation
of applications for marketing authorization, and early dialogue will also serve to
boost patient participation in trials and
make best use of limited resources, said
the European Medicines Agency (EMA) in
its announcement.
The scheme focuses on medicines that
R
April/May 2016
may offer a major therapeutic advantage
over existing treatments, or benefit patients with no treatment options—drugs
formally considered priority medicines
within the European Union (EU). It builds
on existing EU regulatory tools, and will
take advantage of the shorter timeframe
envisioned for decisions on drugs for unmet needs that have been evaluated under an accelerated assessment procedure.
To qualify for the scheme, potential
must be demonstrated by early clinical data, and once selected, a medicine
will receive attention from an expert appointed by the EMA who will help build
knowledge ahead of a marketing authorization application, organize meetings with
relevant EMA committees and working
parties, as well as with health technology assessment bodies, and will mentor
throughout the development process.
This arrangement is made in agreement with the European Commission,
which is legally responsible for marketing authorization decisions in Europe’s
tangled drug control system. Vytenis Andriukaitis, EU Commissioner for Health,
gave his blessing to PRIME as “a major
step forward for patients and their families that have long been hoping for earlier
access to safe treatments for their unmet
medical needs.”
In fact, Andriukaitis is viewing it as
something of a panacea for many current
ills. He is looking forward to the enhanced
scientific support of PRIME to help “accelerate the development and authorization of new classes of antibiotics or their
alternatives in an era of increasing antimicrobial resistance.” He also sees it as “a
potential godsend for those suffering from
diseases for which there are currently no
treatment options”—and particularly rare
cancers, Alzheimer’s disease, and other
dementias.
— Peter O’Donnell
13
NEWS
CLINICAL TRIAL TECHNOLOGY
Sentinel Initiative Expands to Support Clinical Research
fter eight years in development, FDA’s
Sentinel system is poised to play a
more visible role in assessing medical product efficacy, as well as safety.
There are plans to expand it to gather
information on the performance of medical products in real-world settings, which
may assist researchers and clinicians in
answering broader questions about treatment use.
Sentinel has been a big investment for
FDA, commented Janet Woodcock, director of the Center for Drug Evaluation
and Research (CDER), at the recent 8th
Annual Sentinel Initiative Public Workshop. A future pay-off, she noted, will
enable other groups to utilize the system
to “assess product performance beyond
safety.” FDA intends to expand the use of
A
Sentinel by leveraging its data for additional research, public health, and quality improvement activities.
The Sentinel program was launched
in 2008 to expand FDA’s capacity to
actively identify and assess postmarket risks for medical products. It now
has become an “integral part of routine
safety surveillance” for drugs, biologics,
and other medical products, Woodcock
noted.
This has involved establishing an infrastructure and governance policies
that are transparent and respect patient
privacy. Health plans and providers participating in the Sentinel network now
provide access to patient electronic
health records and claims data on some
193 million individuals. An important
recent addition is the Hospital Corp. of
America, which can provide patient records from 168 hospitals and 113 surgery
centers across the US. Data from the
Medicare Virtual Research Center, moreover, will significantly increase information related to older patients.
In addition to building Sentinel use
by CDER, the system is expanding surveillance and analysis of vaccines and
blood products by the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER). A
Sentinel “Tree Scan” project involves
assessing vaccine safety and outcomes
in pregnancy. Another CBER project will
tap added hospital data to evaluate if
there is a relationship between blood
transfusion and lung injury and death.
— Jill Wechsler
D ATA A N A LY S I S
Number of Countries in Phase III Studies Remains Steady
re pharmaceutical company Phase III
clinical trials becoming more complex? The most broadly based database available, ClinicalTrials.gov, does
not support the assertion that clinical
trials have become more complex in
study/protocol design or execution. Illustrative is the number of countries used
in pharmaceutical company sponsored
Phase III clinical studies.
The number of countries used in
commercially sponsored Phase III trials
has not changed in recent years. It is
essential to stratify the results or otherwise the data appear to show that the
number of countries per study has actually declined. The chart at right stratifies the studies by planned study duration: less than one year, 1 to 2 years
and 3 or more years. This is important
because the longer the planned study,
the more likely the study may be open-
A
14
ing sites in additional countries. When
stratified this way, the data show practi-
cally no change over the years covered.
— Harold E. Glass, PhD
Phase III Clinical Trials: Number of Countries and Duration
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
0
2008
2009
2010
<1yr
2011
1-3yrs
2012
2013
3+yrs
Source: Department of Health Policy and Public Policy, University of the Sciences, Philadelphia,
PA, using ClinicalTrials.gov data
The average number of countries per study by designed study duration by
year.
April/May 2016
TECHNOLOGY IS ONLY
AS SMART AS THE
THINKING BEHIND IT.
An innovative approach. One that infuses clinical
research expertise from across our organization
into the designs of our Informatics solutions.
And an eClinical platform, Perceptive MyTrials,®
that brings them together in powerful new ways.
So you can do more with your data—at every step.
Find out why all top 15 biopharmaceutical
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at proof.PAREXEL.com/informatics
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To see more Clinical Trial Insights articles, visit
Acknowledging Cycle Time Impact
from Protocol Amendments
linical trials with at least one
substantial protocol amendment
require several hundred thousand
dollars in unplanned direct costs
to implement. But perhaps the most
expensive impact is the unplanned
incremental cycle time tacked on to the
study. A new analysis by the Tufts Center
for the Study of Drug Development (Tufts
CSDD), in collaboration with more than
a dozen sponsors and contract research
organizations (CROs), indicates that
protocols with at least one substantial
amendment take an average of three
unplanned months more to complete
than do those without an amendment.
These findings shed new light on the
importance of adopting new strategies to
reduce select amendments.
C
Collecting amendment data
Between March and July 2015, Tufts CSDD
and 15 pharmaceutical companies and
CROs collected data from 836 Phase I –
IIIb/IV protocols approved between 2010
and 2013. Protocols approved within the
more recent 12-month period were excluded
from the study, as these had the potential
to continue accumulating amendments
following the conclusion of clinical trial data
collection. From the protocols reviewed,
Tufts CSDD analyzed data from 984
amendments. Seven of the 15 participating
companies also gathered direct cost data
from 52 protocols for which substantial
amendments had been identified during the
January and May 2015 timeframe. This study
was supported in part by an unrestricted
grant from Medidata Solutions.
Only substantial protocol amendments
were evaluated in this study to ensure a
more consistent assessment of prevalence
and impact. Substantial amendments
16
were defined as any change to a protocol
on a global level requiring internal
approval followed by approval from the
institutional or ethical review board or
regulatory authority. Country-specific
amendments that affected protocol
designs for clinical trials within a given
region alone were excluded.
High prevalence... and avoidability
The majority of protocols (57%) had at
least one substantial amendment.
On average, across all phases, the
typical protocol had 2.1 substantial
amendments. Phase II and III studies had
the highest prevalence at 77% and 66%
of the total, respectively. The average
number of substantial amendments
per Phase II protocol was 2.2; Phase III
studies—typically the longest duration
and the costliest to conduct—had the
highest mean number (2.3) of substantial
amendments.
Sponsors report that the vast majority
of changes made to an approved protocol
originate internally. Only one-in-six (16%)
stems from a regulatory agency request.
The most common changes addressed by
a substantial amendment are associated
with modifications and revisions to study
volunteer demographics and eligibility
criteria (53%). Four-out-of-10 (38%)
changes are related to modifications
to safety assessment activity; 35% are
Kenneth A. Getz
MBA, is the Director of
Sponsored Research at
the Tufts CSDD and
Chairman of CISCRP, both
in Boston, MA, e-mail:
[email protected]
related to typographical errors; 27% are
associated with endpoint modifications.
In the Tufts CSDD study, sponsors
and CROs reviewed their respective
amendments and indicated the degree to
which they could have been avoided. Oneout-of-four substantial (23%) amendments
were considered “completely avoidable”
and 22% were considered “somewhat
avoidable.” Avoidable amendments
included protocol design flaws, errors and
inconsistencies in the protocol narrative,
and infeasible execution instructions and
eligibility criteria.
Approximately one-third (30%) of
substantial amendments were deemed
“somewhat unavoidable” and 25% were
classified as “completely unavoidable.”
The causes of unavoidable amendments
included manufacturing changes, the
availability of new safety data, changes in
standard of care, and regulatory agency
requests to change the protocol design.
The total median direct cost to
implement a substantial protocol
amendment for Phase II and III protocols
was $141,000 and $535,000, respectively.
The magnitude of impact
No surprise — substantial protocol
amendments significantly impact some
study scope elements and the entire
study conduct cycle. But the new Tufts
CSDD study puts some real metrics on
the table: Studies that had at least one
substantial amendment saw a significantly
higher reduction in the actual number of
patients screened and enrolled relative
to the original plan. This may have been
due to sample size re-estimations and
concrete steps taken to reduce patient
screening and enrollment burden. In
contrast, protocols that had no substantial
amendments saw only a modest reduction
in the actual number of patients screened
relative to plan; and a modest increase in
the actual number of patients enrolled
relative to the original plan.
Substantial amendments significantly
increased cycle times at individual time
points and throughout the study duration,
suggesting that the delays associated
April/May 2016
with amendment implementation
are not recovered or reversed later in
the study. Study initiation durations
(i.e., protocol approved to first patient
screened) were, on average, 18% longer
for protocols with at least one substantial
amendment compared to those without
an amendment. This difference was not
statistically significant, as expected, since
the majority of substantial amendments are
implemented once the study is underway.
For those protocols with at least one
substantial amendment, the time points
from protocol approval to last patient last
visit (LPLV) and from first patient first visit
(FPFV) to LPLV were significantly longer—
at 90 days and 85 days, respectively—
compared with those protocols without
an amendment.
A whopping 5.5-month increase in
time was observed in the “first patient
participation cycle” (i.e., from first FPFV to
first patient last visit [FPLV]), suggesting
that the implementation of substantial
amendments impacts study volunteers
differently depending on when they are
randomized and enrolled in the clinical trial.
Eyes on the prize
A large and growing number of sponsors
and CROs recognize the incredible
unplanned and unbudgeted toll that
protocol amendments take on study
budgets and timelines, and the major
opportunity to improve clinical trial
efficiency and performance. Companies
are routinely gathering metrics to monitor
their protocol amendment experience.
A number of sponsors and CROs
are leveraging new technologies and
implementing new mechanisms, functions,
and processes to optimize protocol design.
Amgen, for example, has implemented
a new Development Design Center to
assist clinical teams in designing better
studies before going to the protocolauthoring stage. The Center taps experts
and data to facilitate decision-making
and promote a deeper understanding of
design-related trade-off decisions and
their impact on executional feasibility.
Pfizer and GlaxoSmithKline have
implemented extensive internal review
processes to improve protocol quality and
reduce amendments. GSK implemented a
new governance mechanism several years
ago. Pfizer recently revised its standard
operating procedures (SOPs) to require
that all protocols go through a detailed
protocol and amendment review prior
to implementation. The first step in this
process calls for a review by a senior-
Impact of Implementing an Amendment on Study Cycle Times
Protocols without a Substantial Amendment
Protocols with at least one Substantial Amendment
Days
700
580
600
490
500
437
403
352
400
238
300
200
100
0
First Patient First Visit
(FPFV) to First Patient Last
Visit (FPLV)
FPFV to Last Patient
Last Visit (LPLV)
Source: Tufts CSDD, 2016; <csdd.tufts.edu>
April/May 2016
Protocol Approved to LPLV
level governance committee to achieve
consensus on the design elements of
the study, to ensure that the protocol is
consistent with the overall development
plan, and to challenge the executional
feasibility of the protocol.
Eli Lilly has implemented three core
initiatives throughout the organization
to simplify and focus protocol design; to
incorporate patient-centered approaches;
and to streamline the drug development
process. One approach to support these
initiatives is to solicit input—before
protocol approval—from patients and
investigative site staff during a simulation
of study execution and the participation
experience. Lilly’s study teams observe
these simulations to identify and address
feasibility issues that could potentially
trigger the need to amend the protocol.
EMD Serono routinely conducts patient
advisory boards to solicit patient feedback
on protocol design and the feasibility
of the schedule of assessments. These
boards are conducted globally, each
among six to 10 patients in collaboration
with patient advocacy groups.
Lastly, TransCelerate BioPharma has
made protocol feasibility one of its top
areas of focus in 2016. TransCelerate
recently released a Common Protocol
Template, offering a common structure
and language to drive protocol design
quality and identify areas of misalignment
between protocol endpoints and their
respective procedures. TranCelerate’s
initiative is among several other common
authoring templates now available,
including one developed by a community
of global medical writers—the SPIRIT
initiative—and launched a number of
years ago.
Sponsors and CROs are rallying
to reduce the number of avoidable
amendments and ultimately improve
protocol quality, executional feasibility, and
efficiency. The anticipated improvements
in study performance and cost could not
come at a better time, given rapid growth
in the scientific and executional complexity
of protocol designs and growing interest in
patient-centric drug development.
17
TRIAL DESIGN
How Biosimulation Can
Predict Drug Success
J.F. Marier, Trevor N. Johnson, Suzanne Minton
Pediatric trials now feature increased modeling and
analytics for safer drug dosing and response.
PEER
REVIEW
18
istorically, most medications given to
children had not been evaluated in pediatric clinical trials due to logistical
and ethical challenges. Indeed, while
children represent about 40% of the
world’s population, only 10% of the drugs on
the market have been approved for pediatrics. 1 Without a proper and approved clinical
process, physicians are left with potentially
unsafe dosing and therapeutic approaches for
children. The result is a continuation of the offlabel prescribing.
To address this urgent medical need, both
the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
and European Medicines Agency (EMA) now require pediatric trial plans—the Pediatric Study
Plan (PSP) and the Pediatric Investigation Plan
(PIP), respectively—as part of the approval
process for new drugs. The combination of the
Best Pharmaceuticals for Children Act (BPCA)
and the Pediatric Research Equity Act (PREA)
and these new regulatory requirements are
starting to move the pendulum towards safer,
more effective medicines for children. During
the five-year period between 2007 and 2013,
469 pediatric studies were completed under
BPCA and PREA; by August 2014, 526 labeling
changes were made.2 Similarly, in the European
Union, around 300 products have had label
changes approved for safety, efficacy, or dosing
for pediatrics since 2007.2
While these requirements have spurred
growth in pediatric clinical research, there are
H
still major barriers to successful pediatric drug
development. Almost half of the trials conducted in recent years have failed to demonstrate either safety or efficacy. A total of 44
products had failed pediatric drug development trials submitted to the FDA between 2007
and 2014. 3 An analysis by Gilbert J. Burckart,
PharmD, and his FDA colleagues revealed several common factors that contributed to the
widespread failures: suboptimal dosing, differences between adult and pediatric disease processes, and problematic study designs.
In the cases where suboptimal dosing contributed to the failure to show efficacy, there
were two frequent issues: not testing a range
of doses, and limiting pediatric drug exposure
to that which was shown to be efficacious in
adults. Testing a range of doses is critical to
understanding dose-response relationships for
a drug. Also, if the disease process differs between children and adults, then matching the
drug exposure to that observed in adults may
not be effective, and ultimately result in clinical trial failure.
An understanding of pediatric disease—its
natural progression—is crucial for selecting
outcomes for clinical studies, including the
primary efficacy endpoint, safety, and biomarkers. Finally, problematic study designs are a
significant contributing factor in clinical trial
failures. Some of these issues included lack of
a control group, stratification, and inadequate
assay sensitivity.
April/May 2016
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TRIAL DESIGN
A biosimulation framework to support strategic
decision-making
First, it’s important to clarify some definitions regarding pediatric age groupings. According to the FDA guidance, neonates are from birth to one month, infants are from one
month to less than two years of age, children are from two
to 11 years old, and adolescents are from 12 to 18 years
old. As pharmacokinetics (PK) and pharmacodynamics
(PD) may change between each age range, drug developers may need to develop dosing regimens specific to each
subgroup.5
The very nature of human growth and maturation makes
the prediction of pharmacokinetics in children especially
challenging. Drug disposition in children differs from
that of adults in numerous ways. For example, the kinetics of drug absorption may be different in children versus
adults due to changes in the expression of intestinal drug
transporters and drug metabolizing enzymes during development.4 Likewise, drug distribution changes with age as
neonates (birth up to one month) have much higher total
body water compared to adults. Finally, organ maturation
has a significant effect on drug metabolism and excretion.
Children have relatively larger livers, lower glomerular
filtration rates, and less renal tubular absorption and
excretion compared to adults. 6 This distinct physiology
means that traditional approaches such as allometry risk
greatly over or under predicting drug clearance in pediatric
patients, especially those that are less than one year old.7
Because of the special needs of children as well as ethical concerns, there are significant differences in clinical
trial protocols for children versus adults. The FDA guidance document discusses these issues at length. 5 Some
of the major issues in pediatric clinical trials include the
following:
t The type of PK study that is possible is often different
in adults and children. While rich sampling is often conducted in adults, a sparse sampling procedure is generally preferred for young children to minimize the number
and volume of blood draws.
t When studying neonates, sponsors may need to consider gestational as well as postnatal age when determining covariates for a population PK study.
t The formulation of a drug may change between age
groups. Young children generally cannot swallow pills
and may require liquid formulations.
How can pediatric drug developers satisfy regulatory
requirements and maximize drug safety and effectiveness
while minimizing children’s exposure to experimental
medications? Biosimulation—also known as model-based
drug development—includes both empirical “top down”
PK/PD modeling and simulation as well as “bottom up”
physiologically-based pharmacokinetic (PBPK) models.
It leverages prior information from preclinical studies,
20
adult trials, peer-reviewed literature, and pediatric studies
of related indications or drug actions. The integration of
patient physiology, drug actions, and trial characteristics
in models enables sponsors to optimize dosing and trial
design. Indeed, in a study of 11 well characterized drugs,
PBPK models of virtual subjects (birth to 18 years of age)
showed greater accuracy in predicting drug clearance than
simple allometry, especially in children less than two years
of age.8 The increased certainty in biosimulated outcomes
can help sponsors to ensure informative pediatric trials
are performed and will gain approvals based on a smaller
number of pediatric patients.9
An understanding of pediatric disease—
its natural progression—is crucial
for selecting outcomes for clinical
studies, including the primary efficacy
endpoint, safety, and biomarkers.
Opportunities during drug development for applying
modeling and simulation techniques
As the benefits of biosimulation become increasingly
clear, regulatory agencies are also advocating its use to
improve the success rate of pediatric trials from current
levels.10 Indeed, a 2014 draft guidance from the FDA states
that “modeling and simulation using all of the information
available should, therefore, be an integral part of all pediatric development programs.”5
At each stage of clinical development, there are specific
trigger points and opportunities to apply modeling and
simulation techniques to increase the likelihood of success. Submission of the PIP is required by the EMA by the
end of Phase I clinical studies. Biosimulation methods
should be used to support the dosing rationale stated in
the PIP. Population PK and PBPK models based on Phase
I data from adults are frequently used to develop a drug
model that aids with pediatric dose selection. Population
PK or PBPK models can predict drug exposure across a
wide range of ages and weights as well as maturation and
organ function. The predicted drug exposure in pediatric
patients can then be compared against observed values
in adult subjects in Phase I to confirm the models and
optimize the safety of treatments. This approach can also
be used to develop a sparse sampling strategy that optimizes the assessment of PK parameters while minimizing
the number of blood draws and other invasive procedures.
Pediatric PBPK and population PK models can be used
synergistically during drug development. The former have
recently been used to aid in the determination of optimal
dose and sampling times for population PK.11 Conversely,
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TRIAL DESIGN
the results from population PK models can be used to further optimize pediatric PBPK models.
Another important use for PBPK models in pediatric
drug development is evaluating the risk of drug-drug interactions (DDIs). DDIs are a primary threat to the safety
and efficacy of clinical practice. Clinically-relevant drug interactions are primarily due to drug-induced alterations in
the activity and quantity of metabolic enzymes and transporters. Indeed, DDIs that cause unmanageable, severe
adverse effects have led to restrictions in clinical use, and
even drug withdrawals from the market.
The magnitude of any DDI depends on the fractional importance of the inhibited metabolic pathway. The pattern
of CYP metabolic enzymes that contribute to the elimination of a drug may not necessarily be the same in children
compared to adults. Thus, it is difficult to use information
about DDIs in adults to inform the likelihood of pediatric
DDIs. And, again, there are practical and ethical problems
with evaluating DDIs in pediatric clinical studies. A 2012
guidance from the EMA states that PBPK simulations
may be used to predict the effects of drug interactions in
multiple special populations, including young pediatric
patients.12
Use of the Simcyp Pediatric Simulator to simulate DDIs
revealed that in certain scenarios, neonates could be more
sensitive to a DDI than adults while the opposite might be
true in other scenarios involving different CYP enzymes.13
Pediatric PBPK models may help provide information
about the risk and magnitude of potential DDIs where
there are no existing clinical data.
Pharmacometrics tools are also invaluable in supporting pediatric study plans. The PSP should be submitted
to the FDA at the end of the Phase II meeting, following
the availability of exposure-response data in adults. To
provide guidance on the conduct of pediatric trials, the
FDA has articulated a pediatric study decision tree.14 The
degree of similarity of disease progression and drug response between adults and children determines which of
three major pediatric studies should be undertaken: PK
only, PK/PD, PK, or efficacy. Safety studies are required in
all of these scenarios.
The regulatory path taken determines the strategy for
optimizing dosing. In the case that PK studies alone are
used, the sponsor should build a population PK model
customized for size and maturation and perform dose
simulations that will result in drug concentrations within
the range of those observed in adults. Using the PK/PD approach means creating a population PK/PD model that is
customized for size and maturation and performing dose
simulations that will achieve a target concentration based
on the PK/PD relationship. Finally, utilizing a PK and efficacy approach involves building a population PK model
and an exposure-response model, and performing simula-
22
tions to find a dose that will produce a drug concentration
that results in an adequate response.
Phase III studies in adults are performed to determine
whether there is statistically-significant evidence of clinical efficacy and safety for an investigational drug. At this
point, the PIP and PSP should be updated to reflect any
new insights. This is also the time to develop final pediatric protocols. Clinical trial simulations using Phase II
results can be useful for evaluating probability of success
in Phase III.
The increased certainty in biosimulated
outcomes can help sponsors ensure that
informative pediatric trials are performed
and will gain approvals based on a
smaller number of pediatric patients.
Two case studies showing successful use of
biosimulation for pediatric drug development
Learning from one indication to the next: Eculizumab for atypical hemolytic
uremic syndrome
In some cases, information gained developing a drug for
one indication can be leveraged to inform its approval
for a different indication. PNH (paroxysmal nocturnal hemoglobinuria) is a rare, progressive, and life-threatening
disease. It is characterized by rampant destruction of red
blood cells (hemolysis) and excessive blood clotting. 15
Likewise, aHUS (atypical hemolytic uremic syndrome) is
an ultra-rare genetic disease that causes abnormal blood
clots to form in small blood vessels throughout the body.
The sequelae of aHUS include kidney failure, damage to
other organs, and premature death. There were no FDAapproved treatments for this rare disease.
Both aHUS and PNH are caused by chronic, uncontrolled activation of the complement system. During activation of the complement system, the terminal protein
C5 is cleaved to C5a and C5b. C5a and C5b have been
implicated in causing the terminal complement-mediated
events that are characteristic of both aHUS and PNH. Eculizumab is a humanized monoclonal antibody (mAb) that
binds C5, thereby inhibiting its cleavage. In 2007, this mAb
received approval for treatment of PNH based on evidence
of effectiveness from clinical studies.16
To help the sponsor obtain accelerated approval of
eculizumab for the treatment of aHUS in both adults and
pediatric patients, Certara scientists leveraged previous
knowledge gained during its development for PNH. Their
starting point was a population PK model that had been
previously constructed in adult patients with PNH. 17 This
model was customized and used to develop optimal dosing strategies for adult and pediatric aHUS patients.
April/May 2016
TRIAL DESIGN
Getty Images/ Phil Boorman
Almost half of pediatric clinical trials conducted in recent years have failed to demonstrate either safety or efficacy.
Comparing the case of adults with PNH to pediatric
aHUS, it became apparent that children have a different response to intervention and that a different endpoint should
be used. The PK/PD relationship in PNH was leveraged to
measure the drug’s exposure and inform pediatric dosing for
aHUS. Knowledge about eculizumab’s mechanism of action
for PNH also suggested that optimal binding to the pharmacological target (C5) should translate into a clinical benefit.
Identification of the therapeutic dosing window for a
mAb in pediatric patients with a rare disease involved
several steps. First, to ensure patient safety, the upper
exposure limit needed to be determined. As a safeguard
against toxicity, the upper exposure limit was capped
at what had been previously observed in adults. To ensure efficacy, the minimum drug exposure also had to
be determined. Using the predicted concentration of the
soluble target and the binding characteristics of the mAb
to its target, a minimum concentration threshold was set
to obtain close to full inhibition of the target. Then, trial
simulations using a population PK model were performed
to determine which doses would optimize the probability
of obtaining the mAb within the window of target engagement. This enabled the dosing recommendations to be determined for pediatric patients of varying weights.17
The clinical program for aHUS involved two Phase II
studies and a retrospective observational study. A total
of 57 patients with aHUS participated in these studies
(35 adult, 22 pediatric patients). Two different biomarkers
were used to assess the efficacy of treatment. The proximal biomarker, free C5, showed complete suppression
upon treatment with the mAb. Likewise, the mAb caused
April/May 2016
The high rate of trial failures,
increasing regulatory demands, and
ethical imperatives all require a
reexamination of the current approach
to pediatric drug development.
full inhibition of hemolytic activity (the distal biomarker).17
The primary endpoint indicated that the response to the
intervention exceeded 95%. Patients treated with the mAb
experienced several benefits including higher improvement in platelet counts and other blood parameters and
better kidney function, even eliminating the requirement
for dialysis in some patients. Soliris® (eculizumab) received FDA approval to treat aHUS patients in 2011.18
Using PBPK modeling to assess differing drug formulations
for pediatric patients
Quetiapine is an atypical antipsychotic drug for the treatment of schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, major depressive
disorder, and generalized anxiety disorder. An immediate
release (IR) formulation of quetiapine was first approved
by the FDA in 1997 and has been extensively studied in
adults, children, and adolescents. Regulatory approval for
the extended release (XR) formulation was granted for use
in adults, with the requirement that pediatric studies must
be carried out for children over the age of 12.
Various factors influence the bioavailability of different
formulations including the release of the active ingredient, its dissolution and permeability across the GI tract, as
23
TRIAL DESIGN
well as intestinal metabolism. Furthermore, alterations in
PK in children can be due to differences in absorption and
transit rate, organ size, blood flow, tissue composition,
and metabolic capacity at various developmental stages.
The challenge was to integrate the available in vitro ADME,
physiochemical, and clinical data into PBPK models to
predict the effects of age and formulation on the PK of
quetiapine in young subjects.
Scientists at Certara and AstraZeneca developed PBPK
models that predicted, with reasonable accuracy, the effects of CYP3A4 inhibition and induction on the PK of
quetiapine, the PK profile of quetiapine IR in both children and adults, and the PK profile of quetiapine XR in
adults. These validated models were then used to simulate
relative exposure following XR formulation in adolescents
(age 13-17) and children (age 10-12). In both groups, the
predicted exposure to quetiapine XR followed a similar
pattern to the IR formulation, with 300mg XR once-daily
being comparable with 150mg IR twice-a-day.19
Conclusion
The high rate of trial failures, increasing regulatory demands, and ethical imperatives all require a reexamination
of the current approach to pediatric drug development.
Biosimulation is a proven approach that will help optimize
trial design and inform the drug label. This approach can
support global regulatory strategies that increase the likelihood of success for pediatric drug development programs.
References
1. Milne CP and Bruss JB. The economics of pediatric formulation development for off-patent drugs. Clinical Therapeutics. 2008; 30(11):2133-45.
2. Ito, S. Children: Are we doing enough? Clinical Pharmacology and
Therapeutics. 2015. doi: 10.1002/cpt.167. [E-pub ahead of print]
3. Momper JD, Mulugeta Y, Burckart GJ. Failed pediatric drug development trials. Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics. 2015. doi:
10.1002/cpt.142. [Epub ahead of print]
4. Yaffe SJ and Aranda JV. (2010). Neonatal and pediatric pharmacology: Therapeutic Principles in Practice, 4th edition. Philadelphia, PA:
Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.
5. U.S. Food and Drug Administration, “Guidance for Industry: General Clinical Pharmacology Considerations for Pediatric Studies
for Drugs and Biological Products,” December 2014, http://www.
fda.gov/downloads/drugs/guidancecomplianceregulatoryinformation/guidances/ucm425885.pdf
6. Barrett JS, Della Casa Alberighi O, Läer S, Meibohm B. Physiologically-based pharmacokinetic (PBPK) modeling in children. Clinical
Pharmacology and Therapeutics. 2012; 92(1):40-9.
7. Edginton AN, Schmitt W, Voith B, Willmann S. A mechanistic
approach for the scaling of clearance in children. Clinical Pharmacokinetics. 2006; 45(7):683-704.
8. Johnson TN, Rostami-Hodjegan A, Tucker GT. Prediction of the
clearance of 11 drugs and associated variability in neonates,
24
infants and children. Clinical Pharmacokinetics. 2006; 45(9):931-56.
9. Maharaj AR and Edginton AN. Physiologically based pharmacokinetic modeling and simulation in pediatric drug development.
CPT: Pharmacometrics and System Pharmacology. 2014. DOI: 10.1038/
psp.2014.45.
10.Gobburu, J. (2010, March). How to Double Success Rate of Pediatric Trials? Presented at the meeting of the American Society of
Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics , Atlanta, GA.
11. Thai HT, Mazuir F, Cartot-Cotton S, Veyrat-Follet C. Optimizing
pharmacokinetic bridging studies in paediatric oncology using
physiologically-based pharmacokinetic modelling: application to
docetaxel. British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology. 2015. Accepted
manuscript DOI 10.1111/bcp.12702.
12. European Medicines Agency, “Guidelines on the Investigation
of Drug Interactions,” June 2012, http://www.ema.europa.eu/
docs/en_GB/document_library/Scientific_guideline/2012/07/
WC500129606.pdf
13. Salem F, Johnson TN, Barter ZE, Leeder JS, Rostami-Hodjegan,
A. Age-related Changes in Fractional Elimination Pathways for
Drugs: Assessing the Impact of Variable Ontogeny on Metabolic
Drug–Drug Interactions. Journal of Clinical Pharmacology. 2013.
14. U.S. Food and Drug Administration, “Guidance for Industry: Exposure-response Relationships – Study Design, Data Analysis, and
Regulatory Applications,” April 2003, http://www.fda.gov/downloads/Drugs/GuidanceComplianceRegulatoryInformation/Guidances/ucm072109.pdf
15. Lathia C, Kassir N, Mouksassi MS, Jayaraman B, Marier JF, Bedrosian CL. Modeling and Simulations of Eculizumab in Paroxysmal
Nocturnal Hemoglobinuria (PNH) and Atypical Hemolytic Uremic
Syndrome (aHUS) Patients: Learning From One Indication to the
Next. Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics. 2014, PII-107; 93(1): S97.
16.U.S. Food and Drug Administration. (2007) FDA Approves Firstof-its-Kind Drug to Treat Rare Blood Disorder [Press release].
Retrieved from http://www.fda.gov/NewsEvents/Newsroom/PressAnnouncements/2007/ucm108869.htm
17. Lathia C, Kassir N, Mouksassi MS, Jayaraman B, Marier JF, Bedrosian CL. Population PK/PD Modeling of Eculizumab and Free
Complement Component Protein C5 in Pediatric and Adult
Patients with Atypical Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome (aHUS). Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics. 2014, PII-108; 93(1): S97.
18.U.S. Food and Drug Administration. (2011) FDA approves Soliris
for rare pediatric blood disorder [Press release]. Retrieved from
http://www.fda.gov/NewsEvents/Newsroom/PressAnnouncements/ucm272990.htm
19. Johnson TN, Zhou D, Bui KH. Development of physiologicallybased pharmacokinetic model to evaluate the relative systemic
exposure to quetiapine after administration of IR and XR formulations to adults, children and adolescents. Biopharmaceutics and
Drug Disposition. 2014; 35(6):341-52.
J.F. Marier, PhD, FCP, is a Vice President and Lead Scientist; Trevor
N. Johnson, PhD, is a Principal Scientist; Suzanne Minton, PhD, is
the Manager of Scientific Communications; all with Certara
April/May 2016
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DIA 2016 is packed with 175+ educational offerings
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of health care products.
Keynote Speaker:
Larry Brilliant, MD, MPH
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Observational Studies
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TRIAL DESIGN
Value-Based Planning & Drug
Development Productivity
Frederic L. Sax, MD, Marla Curran, DrPH, Sarah Athey, Christoph
Schnorr, MD, Martin Gouldstone
How to integrate evidence-based planning and realworld evidence to boost clinical trial productivity.
PEER
REVIEW
26
ntil relatively recently, the number often
quoted as the cost of bringing a new drug
to market was $1 billion. 1,2 In November
2014, the Tufts Center for the Study of
Drug Development reported that developing a new prescription medicine that gains
marketing approval, a process often lasting longer than a decade, is estimated to cost $2.558
billion. 3 Recent analysis shows that not only
have costs risen, but there is high variability
among companies in their “costs-per-successfulproduct” reaching the market.4 Improvements in
product selection, product development, and investment decision-making would all improve the
likelihood of a product’s successful market entry.
The key issue facing the industry can be described as development productivity. On a portfolio level, this can be defined as a ratio of the
current projects in the pipeline (work in progress
or WIP), the probability of technical success
(p(ts)), and the value of the pipeline (V) divided
by the cycle time (CT) and the cost to deliver the
pipeline (C)5
P = WIP * p(ts) * V
CT * C
This equation conveys the balance of risk,
time, and cost (with a factor included for numbers of compounds in a portfolio, though the
equation is equally relevant for a single compound [i.e., WIP=1]), weighted against the probability of its technical success and its potential
future value; each compound has its own set
of dynamics related to the size of the popula-
U
tion, market share/competitive landscape, unmet
need, differentiation, and market access/pricing
considerations.
Biopharmaceutical companies have attempted
to address the productivity issue by increasing
the number of compounds entering a portfolio
(“shots on goal”) and doing whatever they can
do to decrease costs and cycle time. However,
the productivity equation is dominated by the
very low industry-wide “probability of success,”
which, in the most recent data, is still only about
15% of new medical products entering human
trials.6
Companies have tried to change these odds
by targeting patient populations who are most
likely to respond to therapy (e.g., through use
of biomarkers); the goal is to try to increase
the likelihood of positive efficacy results and
corresponding positive pricing and reimbursement decisions. Even if a compound meets the
regulatory standards that allow for its successful registration, there is no guarantee that the
product will be accepted by boards/formularies
responsible for pricing and reimbursement, making successful commercialization and patient access challenging. “Effectiveness” has essentially
been added as the fourth hurdle to safety, efficacy, and manufacturing quality. Market access
strategies continue to be shaped by influential
stakeholders.
There are a number of recent examples that
speak to this point: England’s National Institute
for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) did not
April/May 2016
TRIAL DESIGN
for decades. In Germany, the law governing pharmaceuticals (AMNOG) was amended in 2011, introducing a formal Health Technology Assessment (HTA). Following this
change, Boehringer Ingelheim decided not to launch the
new oral anti-diabetic compound linagliptin (Trajenta®).
Under the new law, the comparator was not the agreed
comparator and the submission was assessed as not adequately justified.8 9
Value Impact: Real-World Evidence
Development
Clinical development*
$100-200m
Launch
In-market
Initial pricing
& market access*
$100m
Safety & value
demonstration
$200-600m
Launch planning
& tracking
$150m
Commercial
spend effectiveness
$200-300m
Productivity and cost savings
$100m
*Selected operational opportunities only; excludes increased R&D pipeline throughput and better pricing
The goal is to try to increase the
likelihood of positive efficacy results
and corresponding positive pricing
and reimbursement decisions.
1
Hughes B, Kessler M. RWE market impact on medicines: A lens for pharma. IMS Health Access Point 2013; 3(6): 12-17
Source: Sax et al.
Figure 1. Value capture from real-world evidence
across the product life cycle for a top 10 biopharmaceutical company.
These examples illustrate that only focusing on development costs and cycle times is not sufficient and needs to
be balanced continuously with the potential for a product’s reimbursement and commercial viability to ensure
an adequate return on investment for new therapies. This
requires forward-looking (and likely, disruptive) thinking at
the earliest stages of development. Bringing unmet medi-
recommend GlaxoSmithKline’s belimumab for the treatment of active lupus erythematosus. 7 NICE concluded
that there was insufficient evidence of improved efficacy
versus standard of care and did not recommend use, even
though it was the first new approved drug in this indication
Introducing
A Faster, Easier, and More Effective
Approach to Risk-Based Monitoring
ON-DEMAND WEBCAST
Originally aired March 15, 2016
Register free at www.appliedclinicaltrialsonline.com/act/fastermonitoring
EVENT OVERVIEW:
Key Learning Objectives:
During this webcast we will highlight how Oracle Health Sciences’ holistic,
advanced risk-based monitoring cloud solution enables life sciences companies to automate their risk-based monitoring strategies, optimizing actionable results from the comprehensive analysis of clinical and operational data. We will demonstrate how this new and comprehensive approach aligns
with regulatory guidelines and seamlessly incorporates TransCelerate tools
and best practices, including the Risk
Presenter:
Assessment Categorization Tool (RACT)
Jennifer Bush
and TransCelerate Key Risk Indicators.
Director of Product Strategy
Oracle Health Sciences
Who Should Attend:
Moderator:
0 Provide insight as to how sponsors are using
risk-based monitoring technology as part
of their new and improved approach to
monitoring
0 Demonstrate the ease with which sponsors
and CROs can adopt a comprehensive central
monitoring platform to enhance patient safety
and trial quality.
0 Show how cloud solutions incorporating
TransCelerate tools and practices deliver
significant efficiency benefits while reducing
the cost and manual effort of conducting RBM
0 Discover how to make critical decisions
throughout the course of a trial through
actionable insights, execute risk based
monitoring strategies and increasing resource
productivity with the ability to get access to
information anywhere, anytime from any device
Clinical operations, clinical data
management, risk management, data
quality, clinical research associates
Sponsored by
Lisa Henderson
Editorial Director
Applied Clinical Trials
Presented by
For questions contact Daniel Graves at
[email protected]
TRIAL DESIGN
Net Present Value
Time points:
CDN: candidate selection; POC: proof of concept;
DFL: development for launch;
NDA/BLA: new drug or biologics approval
Source: Sax et al.
Figure 2. The relationship between development
risk, cost, cycle time, and net present value. Net
present value (green) is highly dependent on development risk (blue), development costs (red), and development cycle time.
cal need, differentiation, and value-based thinking into the
product development cycle in a way that is easily manifest
and transparently addressable for both product development teams and decision-making stakeholders is essential
in this approach. Integrating evidence-based planning and
real-world evidence (RWE) has the potential to reap even
bigger rewards for development productivity, as shown in
Figure 1 (see page 27).10 To achieve this, we propose the
Three-Pillar approach outlined in this paper.
Enhance probability of technical success
If biopharmaceutical companies are to realize the next
level of transformation and achieve greater development
productivity, they need to address the development cycle
itself by integrating health outcomes, and using better,
evidence-based decision-making approaches. As shown in
Figure 2, the net present value of a product is highly dependent on development risk, costs, and cycle time.
Not surprisingly, including commercial viability and market access in the value equation when addressing development risk and cost early provides a far more complete picture for sound development decision-making. To achieve
the desired outcome of better development productivity
and commercial success, we propose a Three-Pillar approach based on identification of evidence needed for
successful market entry and selection of the right plan to
generate this evidence. These three pillars are illustrated in
Figure 3 on facing page.
28
In Pillar 1, a question-based process identifies what success looks like for the patient, physician, provider, payer,
and regulators. A robust target product profile (TPP) is
built from the answers to these questions; this will guide
creation of an integrated evidence plan that incorporates
the clinical and value evidence requirements to support the
TPP. Refinement of product needs continues throughout
the product life-cycle, including the design of late-stage
development and post-marketing programs. This will result
in intermittent, but iterative reassessments of the TPP and,
correspondingly, the required evidence generation that
such a reassessment will necessitate.
Second, an integrated evidence plan (IEP) is designed.
The goal is to create a direct line of sight from the TPP
to the development strategy and straight through to the
trials/studies in the program. The IEP divides required
information into two categories: (i) data already available,
and (ii) evidence that needs to be generated to advance
stakeholder decision-making. The IEP then defines how
the evidence will be generated within each clinical trial
and real-world observational study, and how this will be
leveraged to satisfy patient, physician, provider, payer,
and regulatory requirements as defined by the TPP. When
value-proving outcomes are investigated early in development, they validate the benefit statements and secure
a positive recommendation from HTA and regulatory authorities. The IEP also allows a team to set futility criteria,
so that if value evidence is not realized in a timely manner,
informed and effective decisions to terminate the program
can be made.
In Pillar 3, scenario development and trade-off analysis
are used to challenge assumptions both scientifically and
operationally and create an evidence-based “level playing
field.” This can be done most effectively through facilitated
workshops where collective expertise (subject matter experts) and various options for generating needed evidence
are reviewed, modified, and critically evaluated. Advanced
analytics optimizes the evaluation of complex time/cost/
risk/value scenarios in a transparent way to drive the decision-making process for key stakeholders.
Productivity will benefit most when the approach to the
pillars is taken in the context of an integrated partnership
of the key stakeholders, with early modeling, visualization, and agreement on the “end game.” True end-to-end
integration leverages business processes aligned with the
three pillars and also leverages good information technology. Using innovative design approaches, timely access
to real-world data (RWD) and patient insights can further
drive positive results. This is especially true if the entire
endeavor is focused on increasing access to more affordable innovative medical solutions that are not only commercially viable, but also deliver better health outcomes
for patients.
April/May 2016
TRIAL DESIGN
Identify evidence needs
Rethinking the development model within today’s healthcare model requires companies to successfully apply the
principle of “designing with the end in mind.” This means
the starting point and the first pillar in our approach is a
robust TPP, based on value to the patient, physician, and
provider while meeting payers’ and regulators’ expectations (Pillar 1). Examples of key issues that might be addressed on a question-driven basis during this phase might
include: defining the unmet medical need, key points of
competitive considerations (versus the existing or emerging standard of care), key scientific claims required for registration, and early market access issues.
These can be further refined to include the benefit of
the treatment to the patient, how this benefit might be assessed, how the medicine will be differentiated in the market, what will drive physicians to prescribe the therapy, what
would a payer require to increase or decrease access, and
any likely evolution of regulatory requirements during the
time-course of development. This forward-looking thinking
is essential, since given the usual time-course of product
development, it can be nearly a decade from the time of
original decisions until a product reaches the market.
‘Three Pillar’ Value Approach
Pillar 1
Pillar 2
Use a question-based
approach to
identify value
to the patient,
physician,
payer, and
regulator
Create line
of sight from
target product
profile through
to the studies
with an
integrated
evidence plan
Pillar 3
Challenge
assumptions
using advanced
decision
analytics
Source: Sax et al.
Figure 3. The Three-Pillar approach linking clinical science and clinical operations underpinned by
access to data, information, and knowledge.
Advancing Drug Development
with Digital Health
Sponsored by
4 Key Ways to Integrate Patient-Generated Data into Trials
ON-DEMAND WEBCAST Originally aired March 16, 2016
Register for free at www.appliedclinicaltrialsonline.com/act/digitalhealth
EVENT OVERVIEW:
Digital health is not only changing the way patient data is collected in healthcare,
but it is also disrupting the way the pharmaceutical industry gathers data from clinical trial participants. By arming participants with wearable and FDA Class II medical devices, sensors and applications, pharmaceutical companies and CROs can
remotely collect activity data along with key biometrics. This stands to significantly
restructure the drug development process, allowing companies to bring a drug to
market more efficiently and cost-effectively while also improving the clinical trial
participants’ experience. Pharmaceutical companies looking to implement a digital
health strategy should register for this webinar to:
PRESENTERS
DREW SCHILLER
Chief Technology Officer
and Co-Founder
Validic
JOE DUSTIN
Principal, Mobile Health Medidata
MODERATOR
■
Learn four key ways pharma and CROs can leverage participant data from digital
health devices.
■
Hear real examples of how digital health data is being utilized by pharma.
LISA HENDERSON
Editorial Director
Applied Clincial Trials
■
Discover the benefits, for both pharma and trial participants, of integrating
digital health data into drug development.
Presented by
For questions, contact Daniel Graves at [email protected]
TRIAL DESIGN
Planning and design
Scientific
design
Health
outcomes
and value
Operational
design
Operational
design
Clinical operations
Clinical science / commercial viabiltiy
Clinical Synergy: Science & Operations
Execution
Source: Sax et al.
Figure 4. The critical interplay of clinical science
and clinical operations in driving successful drug
development outcomes.
Focusing on these issues upfront is essential to success
of the Three-Pillar approach; the issues defined in the TPP
will determine what evidence is required to support the
program and ultimately, what results in terms of cost, time,
risk, and value of the product. This closely knit interplay is
shown in Figure 4. Furthermore, a value-based TPP defines
the threshold that must be achieved for the product to be
commercially viable. This then can be used to structure
more formal “go/no-go” decisions that can help frame
decision-making strategy and help to control biases that
tend to favor continuing product development even in the
face of low probabilities of success both scientifically and
commercially.
Create an integrated evidence plan
Once key product attributes are defined, the next step
(Pillar 2) is to identify key scientific and operational requirements (“specs”) in light of the evidentiary needs for
the program. The process of defining requirements segments information into two groups: (i) data/information
readily accessible, for example, real-world data, research,
literature, and subject matter experts, and (ii) evidence
that needs to be generated. The interplay between the data
needs for the TPP and evidence needs incorporated into
the IEP is shown in Figure 5 (see page 32).
Once all the available information and evidence needs
have been explored, the next step in the pillar is to use
this information to create a line of sight from the TPP
30
through to potential studies (the fundamental unit of
evidence-generation within a program) by developing an
IEP. The development team will look at the evidence needs
and begin to link them to study design options that can
be used to generate this evidence. Generation of study
options encourages teams to explore new and innovative
approaches that can later be challenged and evaluated
(Pillar 3).
Use of unbiased historical data is
critical to trial design because it informs
the decision criteria for success,
failure, and areas of uncertainty.
Critical to this evaluation is transparency of data and information. Use of unbiased historical data is critical to trial
design because it informs the decision criteria for success,
failure, and areas of uncertainty. This has led to increased
industry and regulatory efforts—such as the creation of
TransCelerate BioPharma11 and the European Medicines
Agency (EMA) policy on access to clinical trial data12—to
open up “pre-competitive” data for appropriate and approved research.
Biopharmaceutical companies have also taken independent steps to provide external researchers with the ability
to request access to anonymized patient level data. This facilitates further independent research to improve scientific
knowledge and patient care, which, in turn, can contribute
to the information generation process during product development.
Challenge assumptions
Creating a level playing field with a focus on all relevant
data, information, and collective expertise is an effective
way to evaluate development options (right information/
people/time/decisions). In this third pillar, the team builds
and evaluates scenarios based on integrated data, analytics, and subject matter expert knowledge. The trade-offs
among options can then be transparently considered, to
select the clinical program that optimally addresses the
needs defined in the TPP and balances those requirements
against cost/time/risk and value considerations.
To accomplish this goal, internal siloed subject matter
expertise is no longer sufficient—a truly beneficial outcome of Pillar 3 hinges on the ability of the team to model
potential scientific, operational, and business outcomes
simultaneously, and to identify the decision elements most
likely to drive value. This makes integrated evidence planning an increasingly cross-functional responsibility that
will benefit from an integrated decision-making framework,
based on visualization of information and modeling of
April/May 2016
TRIAL DESIGN
options. Such a decision framework also provides the opportunity to identify clear futility criteria at the study level,
and define program “go/no go” criteria.
Maximum productivity and value benefits in the development cycle will occur when clinical development and
health outcomes groups function interdependently while
leveraging outside sources of expertise and data access.
These outside sources can be used to refine the IEP and
modify options during Pillar 3, further enhancing the precision of the decision-making process.
Benefits of the Three-Pillar approach
As of 2014, GSK had adopted facilitated workshops similar to the one described here and requires integrated
evidence plans for all assets in development. GSK has
also mandated study-level facilitated clinical reviews for
all protocols in the design phase at the company. More
specifically, an objective facilitator, external to the team,
leads a full-team discussion regarding core components
of protocol quality (i.e., alignment with product strategy,
clarity of objectives/endpoints, appropriate entry criteria,
and intent behind the assessment schedule); and offers
study design alternatives. Since introducing these work-
shops at the study level in 2010, GSK has demonstrated
that studies that completed the review have experienced
measurable benefits, such as fewer amendments and fewer
non-recruiting sites, with a higher likelihood of recruiting
to plan.
Facilitated workshops have also been conducted at the
above study, full program level, enabling development
teams to identify and prioritize the critical questions,
evaluate the evidence needs at each stage of development,
and at times use more advanced decision analytics such
as Decision Lens™ or D-Sight™, to identify the right plan
and evaluate benefit-risk. For instance, a development
team can be asked to identify development Plan A based
on traditional study designs to generate required evidence
and answer the critical questions, then consider options
based on variations: Plan B (adaptive designs), Plan C
(seamless designs), Plan D (observational studies and
pragmatic trials included), etc.
The team then considers the key factors that differentiate one plan from the next. These can be operational
factors, such as the ability to recruit or availability of
drug supply; or scientific, such as the ability to identify
responders, select dose, or collect key endpoints. Once the
BEST PRACTICES IN
Acquiring, Tracking and Maintaining
Biological Study Samples Across Global Trials
ON-DEMAND WEBCAST | Originally aired March 17, 2016
Register for free at www.appliedclinicaltrialsonline.com/act/labconnect
Increasingly complex biomarker and other specialized testing requirements
present a significant challenge to sample testing, logistics and storage.
Drug development for early stage and adaptive protocol designs requires a
comprehensive, real-time grasp of exactly what samples you have, where they
are, and how they are collected, shipped, processed and stored especially from
the moment of collection.
■
Increasing blood collection volumes, unique specimen types and specialized
collection materials have created new challenges for sites and sponsors for
their early phase studies.
Presenter:
■ Decisions regarding patient care/
Stephanie Weber
safety and treatment are based
Director,
on real-time data from samples
Early Development Services
collected during the course of the
LabConnect
study.
Moderator:
■ Protocols are amended quickly
Lisa Henderson,
needing flexible resources to
Editorial Director, ACT
implement changes quickly.
Sponsored by
Presented by
Key Learning Objectives:
■ Learn how study complexity poses challenges
in sample logistics and management in
today’s early stage and adaptive protocol
designs.
■ Learn about different methods that can be
used to manage samples in these complex
studies so you can obtain cleaner results and
data real-time, allowing for faster decision
making in protocol amendments and study
direction.
■ Understand the benefits of a comprehensive
sample tracking and management plan that
forecasts and determines when, where and
how samples will be collected, shipped and
stored before the trial begins.
Who Should Attend
■
Pharmaceutical and biotech companies.
Anyone whose job responsibility is global
clinical trial sample management.
For questions, contact Daniel Graves at
[email protected]
TRIAL DESIGN
Data-Driven Evidence
Data Available
Evidence to be Generated
Scientific
Scientific
Burden of illness
Natural history of disease
Event rates (previous trials)
Safety profile (pre-clinical,
other therapies)
Regulatory requirements
Formulary requirements
Patent life
Potential risks biases
Correct formulation
Dosing regimen
Responder population
Efficacy endpoints
Safety signals
Risk-Benefit proposition
TPP
IEP
Market opportunity
Competitive landscape
Points of unmet
need/differentiation
Estimated time to launch
Likely market
access/pricing/penetration
ROI/NPV
Pricing benchmarks
Portfolio “fit”
Commercial
Site feasibility
Patient eligibility
Enrollment projections
Operational risk
assessments
Drug supply/availability
Trial costs
Operational
Early “value” data
Key differentiation data
Final Value Dossier
Market access evidence
Payer response to value
proposition
Pricing sensitivity analyses
Feasibility assessment
Patient availability
Enrollment actual for reforecasting
Frequency of risk triggers
Ability to achieve
milestones
Commercial
Operational
Source: Sax et al.
Figure 5. The interplay between the data driving the target product profile and the evidence required from the integrated evidence plan.
team has decision drivers and plan options, prioritization
can be conducted through advanced analytics, and selections made.
Transparency, of development challenges and stakeholder opinions, is created when the session is conducted
in this way. When making decisions under uncertainty, it is
very helpful to have a framework that comprises the various quantitative pieces of available and important data,
coupled with the more subjective, intuitive, and qualitative factors, with a clear understanding of how much
weight or importance the various criteria have.13
Often, within companies, there is a challenge around
the early assignment of senior expert resources to do such
evaluations (i.e., costs will be incurred before the benefits
are fully understood).
However, better use of technologies that can be used to
evaluate scenarios helps to identify the quick wins early on
and can minimize the drain on senior expert time and facilitate decision-making. Early use of a computer-assisted
design tool as the data-integration platform for facilitated
workshops has also led to substantial reductions in early
protocol amendments for Eli Lilly14 teams, as well as reductions in design cycle times.
32
Focused engagement by knowledgeable
drug developers can lead to “quick
wins” in decision-making that feed
into early development planning.
Focused engagement by knowledgeable drug developers
can lead to “quick wins” in decision-making that feed into
early development planning. The evidence requirements
that result then naturally lead to a decision matrix (i.e.,
early “no-go” decisions based on informed futility criteria
can be made with the confidence that a potential target
has not been “killed” too early).
Implications for drug development
The critical success factors that will influence the probability
of success are: (i) creating a focus on evidence generation to
level the playing field across all players involved in development strategy planning and execution; (ii) making sure the
right expertise is involved in the decision-making process;
(iii) using all relevant data and advanced analytics to inform decisions and aligning this information with the TPP;
April/May 2016
TRIAL DESIGN
Productivity Measures
Productivity =
p (ts)*
V] /
C]
Increase of value
Decrease in
cycle time
Reduction of cost
Target product profile drives
integrated evidence plan
++
+++
++
++
IEP options consider internal
and external data (both positive
and negative)
++
+++
+++
+++
Stringent management of
portfolio
Strict limitations of collection of
data point to objective(s) of trial
Trial
Execution
[CT*
Increase of probability
of technical success
Effect
Planning &
Design
[WIP*
++
+
++
+
Data-driven clinical trial
execution
++
+++
++
+++
Lean, but compliant closure of
exit trials
++
Source: Sax et al.
Positive effect: + Low ++ Medium +++ High
Table 1. The level of impact on productivity in the planning and design and trial execution functions.
and (iv) delivering excellence in planning and execution to
reduce cycle time and decrease operational costs. The relative impact of these is shown in Table 1. One of the greatest
challenges is establishing ownership of strategic decisionmaking and engaging all of the relevant experts. Including
the right experts in a knowledge-sharing session (Pillar 1) at
the start of the planning process, with access to all relevant
data and information (Pillar 2), will enable creation of an initial set of risk-based scenarios for evaluation (Pillar 3).
With data and evidence requirements in hand, the primary objective of the scenario-generation/trade-off analysis step is to evaluate plans based on cost, time, and risk
to optimize value or probability of success. There should
be a clear justification for each piece of evidence to be
collected with a clear line-of-sight to the requirements for
the trial, derived from the TPP. Time spent generating and
testing options will ultimately lead to reduced protocol
amendments, greater ability to predict enrollment, less
redundant data collection, and fewer issues in data quality. This also allows a more accurate forecast of a trial’s
budget, which can be mapped to actual costs in execution.
The baseline assumptions also provide an objective basis
for monitoring trial progress and outcomes, keeping subsequent decision-making evidence-based, and minimizing
potential bias.
Encouragingly, the industry recognizes that decisionmaking requires a business model that is expert-led, but
data/evidence-driven. However, implementation of such a
model requires an understanding of and sharing of risk by
all key stakeholders. The healthcare environment is comApril/May 2016
Maximum productivity and value
benefits in the development
cycle will occur when clinical
development and health outcomes
groups function interdependently
while leveraging outside sources
of expertise and data access.
plex and there is an urgent need to simplify and have efficient, directed development plan execution. This can only
be done with early design and planning linked to evidence
requirements based on value generation.
Ultimately, bringing science, operations, and commercial
understanding together to design a medicine’s development program can result in earlier and more successful
product launches with value to the patient at the core. Success requires truly integrated end-to-end partnerships that
go beyond current organizational paradigms, to bring evidence and execution together and into alignment. Joining
efforts in this way will increase the probability of success
and, therefore, patient access to more affordable, innovative, and commercially viable medical solutions.
References
1. $1bn cost to bring a new medicine to the market. The Times, Nov 5
2005. http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/world/article1981765.
ece
33
TRIAL DESIGN
Getty Images/ Jupiterimages
2. Scannell JW, Blanckley A, Boldon H and Warrington B, Diagnosing the Decline in Pharmaceutical R&D Efficiency, Nature Reviews
Drug Discovery, Volume 11, March 2012, 191 – 200
3. Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development press release:
Cost to Develop and Win Marketing Approval for a New Drug
Is $2.6 Billion, November 18, 2014. http://csdd.tufts.edu/news/
complete_story/pr_tufts_csdd_2014_cost_study
4. Sources: InnoThink Center For Research In Biomedical Innovation; Thomson Reuters Fundamentals via FactSet Research
Systems
5. Paul SM, Mytelka DS, Dunwiddie CT, Persinger CC, Munos BH,
Lindborg SR et al, How to improve R&D productivity: the pharmaceutical industry’s grand challenge, Nature Reviews Drug Discovery, Volume 9 , 2010 , 203-214.
6. Hay M, Thomas DW, Craighead JL, Economides C and Rosenthal
J, Clinical development success rates for investigational drugs,
Nature Biotechnology, Volume 1, 2014, 40-51
7. NICE says no to belimumab for lupus. Arthritis Research UK, April
27 2012. Available at: http://www.arthritisresearchuk.org/news/general-news/2012/april/nice-says-no-to-belimumab-for-lupus.aspx
8. Trajenta will not be launched in Germany following AMNOG
decision. Pharma Relations, May 2014. Available at: http://
www.pharma-relations.de/news/trajenta-r-steht-patienten-indeutschland-vorerst-nicht-zur-verfuegung
9. HTA in Germany: IQWiG assessment of Linagliptin (Trajenta)
and Abirateron (Zytiga). European Confederation of Pharmaceutical Entrepreneurs. January 2 2012. Available at: http://www.
eucope.org/en/2012/01/02/hta-in-germany-iqwig-assessmentof-linagliptin-trajenta-and-abirateron-zytiga
34
10. Hughes B, Kessler, RWE market impact on medicines: A lens for
pharma, IMS Health Access Point, Volume 3(6), 2013, 12-17
11. Mansell, P, TransCelerate’s Comparator Network now active,
Pharma Times, August 17 2013. Available at: http://www.pharmatimes.com/Article/13-08-07/TransCelerate_s_Comparator_Network_now_active.aspx?rl=1&rlurl=/13-11-12/TransCelerate_
unveils_second-year_initiatives.aspx#ixzz2sGtSIOng
12. Publication and access to clinical-trial data EMA/240810/2013,
Draft consultation paper, European Medicines Agency, June
2013. Available at: http://www.ema.europa.eu/ema/index.
jsp?curl=pages/includes/document/document_detail.jsp?webC
ontentId=WC500144730&mid=WC0b01ac058009a3dc
13. A new paradigm for decision-making in the pharma, biotech and
life-sciences industries, report by Decision Lens, 2011. Available at: http://www.decisionlens.com/docs/WP_Decision_Making_in_Pharma_Biotech_LifeSciences_2.pdf
14. Sax R and Ramsey J, Using Computer-Assisted Design to Improve
the Outcomes of Clinical Trials: A One-Year Follow-Up, Meeting
presentation at Disruptive Innovations, Boston, Sept. 20, 2013
Frederic L. Sax, MD, is Global Head, Center for Integrated Drug
Development, Quintiles, email: [email protected]; Marla Curran,
DrPH, is Real World Evidence Director, Value Evidence and Outcomes
US, RD Projects, Clinical Platforms & Sciences, GlaxoSmithKline,
email: [email protected]; Sarah Athey is Director, Consulting
Europe, Quintiles, email: [email protected]; Christoph
Schnorr, MD, is Vice President, Drug Development, Consulting Europe,
email: [email protected]; Martin Gouldstone is Director –
Lifesciences Advisory, BDO LLP, email: [email protected]
April/May 2016
Learn more about
Mitigating risk
using Risk-based
Monitoring
On-demand webinar:
Originally aired
March 22, 2016
View now for free!
www.appliedclinicaltrialsonline.com/
act/mitigatingrisk
Risk-based Monitoring (RBM) is quickly
becoming the standard model for clinical
development trial execution. Quintiles, as
the RBM market leader, is delivering benefits
from their RBM approach to improve data
and study quality, enable faster, more
informed decisions, and enhance patient
safety while mitigating risk.
Register for this webinar to understand how to:
Presenters:
Dr. Jonas Renstroem
Associate Director, Strategic Solutions, Quintiles
Edward Tumaian
Senior Director, Global Project Leadership, Quintiles
Moderator:
Lisa Henderson
Editorial Director, Applied Clinical Trials
@ !:.(01>.)*39.+>549*39.&18&+*9>&3)6:&1.9>.88:*8
@ #*99-*7.,-97.802&3&,*2*39897&9*,>.3+472*)'>8.9*
feasibility and extensive industry data.
@ valuate scientific and operational risks using Key Risk
Indicators (KRIs) and data checks.
@ Mitigate risk while utilizing a risk-based monitoring
(RBM) approach
@ Understand key steps in developing an optimized RBM
data management plan
Presented by:
Sponsored by:
Quintiles: +1 973 850 7571 Toll free: +1 866 267 4479
www.quintiles.com/services/riskbased-monitoring
[email protected]
For technical questions about this webinar, please
contact Daniel Graves at [email protected]
Copyright © 2016 Quintiles
@ Build a Risk Assessment Mitigation Plan for your RBM
studies
CRO/SPONSOR
Imagining the Impossible:
Immunity to Cancer
Chris Smyth, PhD
The smaller biopharmaceutical perspective on
mastering oncology immunotherapy clinical trials.
PEER
REVIEW
uring the past few years, several novel cancer
treatments have emerged that are designed
to leverage a patient’s own immune system
to disrupt, halt, or reverse cancers. This category, known as immunotherapy or immunooncology, features mechanisms of action as varied
as the candidates themselves. Early data with this
class of drugs, particularly with checkpoint inhibitors such as ipilimumab, nivolumab, and pembrolizumab, as well as “personalized” immunotherapies
such as chimeric antigen receptor T cells (CAR-T)
and dendritic cell vaccines, has been so compelling
that standards of care in a range of tumors are rapidly shifting, and drug developers are clamoring for
ways to leverage these technologies.
In light of such innovative treatments, many
traditional clinical trial parameters common to
chemotherapy or even the more recent targeted
antibodies or kinase inhibitors must be revisited
for their application to examine the safety and effectiveness of immunotherapies. This challenge,
and others presented by immunotherapy trials,
require expertise and experience to master, and
can be especially challenging within biopharmaceutical companies with smaller staff. This article
explores five challenges smaller biopharmaceutical companies should prepare for when embarking on immunotherapy studies.
proaches, along with vaccines and non-specific
immunotherapies, that pharmaceutical and biotech companies are pursuing to thwart cancer’s
hallmark ability to evade the immune system.
Targeted mAbs for cancer by themselves are not
new—the first FDA approval being rituximab for
the treatment of lymphoma, followed closely by
trastuzumab for breast cancer nearly 20 years ago.
What has emerged recently, however, is an ability
to leverage mAbs to reengage the immune system
to identify and attack one’s own cancer cells. This
category, generally characterized as checkpoint
inhibitors, has garnered much interest because
such products are designed to, in combination
with traditional agents or other immunotherapies,
prompt immune attacks that target only cancer
cells and spare healthy tissues. They can help the
immune system act as it was designed to do, with
quite durable effects that can last years.
Immunotherapies, particularly more recent immuno-oncology products, are not yet as common
as first-line therapies, but pharmaceutical and
biotech companies are aggressively pursuing such
indications as they examine candidates in a variety of combinations and against various tumor
types. The estimated cancer immunotherapy market value, totalling about $41 billion in 2014, is
almost half of the overall oncology drug market.1
Three approaches dominate
Vaccines
Monoclonal antibodies
Immunotherapy cancer vaccines are designed to
fight, not prevent, existing cancer. Together with
preventive cancer vaccines, such as Gardasil and
D
Monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) are one of the
three most significant immunotherapy ap-
36
April/May 2016
CRO/SPONSOR
Cancer Fighters
Source: Smyth
Figure 1. These are the three main targets biopharmaceutical companies are focusing on in the
immuno-oncology therapy space.
Cervarix, which are designed to thwart human papilloma
virus infections that can lead to cervical cancer, cancer
vaccines sales comprised a market valued at about $4.0 billion in 2014, with modest growth rates anticipated to reach
about $4.3 billion in 2019.2,3 One tally estimates more than
280 candidates in cancer vaccine pipelines globally.4
However, to date, the only immunotherapy cancer vaccine approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration
(FDA) is Provenge (sipuleucel-T), made by Dendreon Corporation, now Valeant Pharmaceuticals. The vaccine was
cleared for marketing in April 2010. A second vaccine was
cleared in October 2015—Amgen’s T-VEC (talimogene laherparepvec)—which is a dual-acting cancer vaccine/viral
therapy for melanoma patients.5
Non-specific immunotherapies
Non-specific immunotherapies target cancer cells indirectly
by prompting immune system attacks. Among this group
of treatments are laboratory-made cytokines, interleukins,
interferons, and GM-CSF, as well as mAbs designed to alter
the function of T-cell checkpoints.6
PD-1/PD-L1. Cancer cells are adept at manipulating and
controlling T cells to ignore tumor cells. Recent drugs are
designed to target a T-cell checkpoint protein’s function to
help counter that control. Such drugs interfere with either
the programmed death 1 (PD-1) receptor or its binding protein, PD-L1. PD-1, when activated by PD-L1, puts the brakes
on T cells, which while useful for regulating autoimmunity,
also allows cancer to proliferate. Cancer cells can express
PD-L1, thus permitting them undue influence over T cells.
Such cancers are often aggressive and, in the past, patients
had a poor prognosis.
April/May 2016
Checkpoint inhibitors are helping to change this prognosis via two different mechanisms of action. They can protect
PD-1 from cancer cell manipulation or they can bind up the
cancer cells’ PD-L1 to limit its interaction with T cells. The
mAb pembrolizumab was, in September 2014, the first PD1-blocking drug to receive FDA approval, with the second,
Opdivo (nivolumab), made by Bristol-Myers Squibb, receiving approval in December 2014, both indicated for certain
melanomas. In March 2015, the FDA expanded Opdivo’s indication to certain lung cancers, and in July it was approved
in Europe for non-small cell lung cancer. Morningstar
projects these two drugs will be worth $33 billion by 2022
because both are being tested for other cancer types.7
Small and mid-sized biopharmaceutical
companies play significant,
pioneering roles in innovating and
adapting existing drug designs to
create new immunotherapies.
CAR immunotherapy uses a patient’s own T cells to fight
cancer. Through genetic engineering, the T cells are modified
and induced in the laboratory to produce CARs corresponding to an antigen of a patient’s specific cancer cells, such as
the CD19 protein on the surface of cancerous B cells. After
billions of copies are made and reintroduced to the patient,
the T cells recognize the cancer cells bearing the antigen and
induce a lethal immune response. Oncologists have hailed
CARs as very promising for both solid tumor and hematologic malignancies; in fact, CARs eventually may “become a
standard therapy for some B-cell malignancies.”8
BiTE antibodies are two separate laboratory-made antibodies that are bound together. One antibody binds to a patient’s T cells, while the other links to certain markers largely
expressed on the cancer cell, such as CD19. When bridged
together, the T cells can launch attacks that induce cancer
cell death. Amgen’s investigational BiTE antibody blinatumomab received FDA breakthrough therapy designation in
July 2014 and was approved in December 2014 for a specific
type of acute lymphoblastic leukemia. The company also announced an agreement in January 2015 with The University
of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center to explore the use of
BiTE technology for myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS).9
Special challenges for smaller biotechs pursuing
immunotherapy clinical programs
Small and mid-sized biopharmaceutical companies play significant, pioneering roles in innovating and adapting existing drug designs to create new immunotherapies. Because
such sponsors typically have limited staff, they often require
37
CRO/SPONSOR
outsourcing support to plan, launch, and manage clinical
investigations. When seeking support, sponsors should assess their CROs and vendors for expertise and experience
specific to immuno-oncology, because these types of trials,
more than traditional chemotherapy studies, bring with
them several obstacles, such as those characterized by the
Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC).10
Obtaining protocol approvals
Smaller-sized sponsors may find themselves for the first time
negotiating the trial protocol, conduct, and endpoints, as
well as the regulatory pathway, either alone or with a larger
partner. A CRO can provide experience-based counsel and
tactical support to write or review a trial protocol that ensures successful recruitment and data collection, as well as
the required evaluations. Because immunotherapy endpoints
are not traditional, and oncology practitioners are still gaining experience with this class of drugs, a well-written protocol can guide the investigators and trial staff as they adapt to
this new class of treatments. The protocol design is particularly important because of the emerging popularity of testing
combinations of drugs within the same protocol.
As part of protocol drafting, or even a near-final review
before finalization, sponsors should understand the “sticking points” in the regulatory processes as well as the institutional review boards and independent ethics committees
(IRB/IEC) processes, enabling sponsors to address them
proactively in their trial design and submission material. As
with oncology practitioners, while site-level regulatory bodies
have reviewed and approved immunotherapies, many IRB/
IECs may be unfamiliar with immunotherapy clinical trial designs, methods of action, evaluations, or side-effect profiles.
Country-level approval processes for sponsors of international trials must address the varying requirements regarding the production and use of biologics by different national
or regional regulatory bodies. For example, good manufacturing practice (GMP) regulations are required for trials in
the European Union, but FDA recognizes that commercial
production and warehousing, which are subject to GMP
regulations, may not be appropriate for the manufacture of
Phase I investigational drugs. Therefore, the FDA requests
sponsors submit product chemistry, manufacturing, and
control information as part of an investigational new drug
application (IND) for a determination of sufficient safety.
Enrolling and retaining the right patients
Another challenge for sponsors is identifying, recruiting,
and retaining specific patient populations as defined by
their immune status and genetic makeup of their cancers,
both of which are entwined with the development of enrollment and endpoint criteria and may require companion
diagnostic tests. Addressing this challenge involves many
evolving strategies, including the use of biomarkers and ge-
38
netic sequencing data. Smaller companies may need assistance from a CRO’s scientific and data team to plan robustly
for how they and trial sites might address such issues for
the duration of a trial.
Immunotherapy clinical trials require
larger scale product production
but with the same purity and
specificity as preclinical studies.
The International Cancer Genome Consortium (ICGC),
coordinated by the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research in
Toronto, Canada, publishes information to help guide treatment development and patient selection. The ICGC aims to
catalogue every genetic mutation in 50 different cancer types
by analyzing a minimum of 500 individual samples of each
type. ICGC participants hail from Australia, Canada, France,
India, China, Japan, Singapore, the U.K., and the U.S.
Another resource is a SITC catalogue of “references and
online resources relevant to the discovery, evaluation, and
clinical application of immune biomarkers” so that they
might be applied to the “development, clinical evaluation
and monitoring of cancer immunotherapies.”11
Moreover, the Cancer Immunotherapy Trials Network
(CITN) is addressing diagnostics and bioinformatics as
part of its mission to make immunotherapies broadly available to patients with cancer. CITN, funded by the National
Cancer Institute (NCI) and Fred Hutchinson, designs and
conducts early phase trials to provide “high-quality immunogenicity and biomarker data that elucidate mechanisms
of response or failure and thereby facilitate the design
of subsequent trials ... [and uses] only GMP agents with
validated reproducible and reliable manufacturing at scale
by a company, the NExT (NCI Experimental Therapeutics)
program, the former RAID (Rapid Access to Interventional
Development) program, or an equivalent experienced organization.”12 CITN member sites include NCI and 29 academic
medical centers, and works in collaboration with foundation
and industry partners.
Planning for logistics, product production, and assessment
Preclinical immunotherapies can be made in the laboratory
on a small scale. In contrast, immunotherapy clinical trials
require larger scale product production but with the same
purity and specificity. Unlike small molecules, however,
targeted vaccines are not typically made in homogenous
batches. Rather, they require harvesting immune cells and
tumor samples from individual patients and different trial
sites at different times, transport of these samples to qualified facilities for manipulation and proliferation, and then
shipping back to the investigator for patient infusions.
April/May 2016
CRO/SPONSOR
Response Criteria Adjusted
Source: Smyth
Figure 2. Measuring patient response is a known
challenge for immunotherapies, a reality that has
prompted the revision of clinical trial designs.
Temperature control, customs clearance facilitation and
regulation compliance are just part of what sponsors need
to consider and require for their secure chains of custody
during immunotherapy trials.
Sponsors may need counsel on manufacturing sources
for their candidate immunotherapies if they do not own
facilities or have access to one via a large pharmaceutical
partner. A CRO can advise sponsors on the availability and
capability of academic or contract-based manufacturing facilities that can reliably provide the quality and quantity of
product needed to support the trial’s sites. CROs also can
advise on a trial’s assessments, such as the best methods
and facility for centralization of immunological monitoring
or how to use training and protocols to reduce data variability if different laboratories must be used to accommodate trial sites.
Dosing and measuring response
Determining the ideal dosing protocol for the best patient
response can be novel territory for immunotherapy developers. Large pharma companies can obtain experience
through multiple advisors, trials, and resources that permit
revisiting the drawing board to make such determinations.
In contrast, smaller sponsors usually have the budget for
one trial.
Early phase trials in oncology traditionally aim to establish the maximum tolerated dose (MTD) for later phase
trials. The challenge for sponsors here is that immunotherapies can exhibit therapeutic responses at dose levels
below where toxicity is seen, and thus one may not necessarily want to identify the highest possible dose that a
patient can tolerate. In addition, immunotherapies are now
typically being investigated as part of a combination treatment with other marketed or investigational agents. Even
if the safety profile of each agent as a monotherapy is well
characterized, the effects in combination are unknown and
can be substantially different than anticipated. SITC noted
that such combinations are problematic for using classical
April/May 2016
methods to determine MTD and recommended that an optimal biologically active dose (BAD) might best consider both
a toxicity grade and an immune response score.14
Measuring patient response is a known challenge for immunotherapies that has prompted the revision of clinical
trial designs. No “universal” criteria to measure immunotherapy response have been adopted for research or clinical
care, and the FDA still holds survival as a gold standard
for cancer treatment. That said, both pembrolizumab and
nivolumab were initially approved based on small, singlearm trials that utilized surrogate endpoints such as overall
response rate and duration of response.
Looking back, traditional chemotherapy patient response
assessment drove the development of Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors (RECIST) and modified World
Health Organization (WHO) criteria, which rely on a reduction in tumor burden. RECIST uses straightforward, one-dimensional measures, such as the sum of the longest diameter of the tumors.13 Immunotherapies are not well served
by these criteria, in that patients’ responses may not immediately result in tumor burden reduction. Rather, they may
experience pseudo disease progression before regression
or stabilization. For example, an immune response such as
T-cell infiltration can increase a lesion size that without a
biopsy may appear as tumor cell proliferation.
Of note, as part of the ipilimumab Phase II melanoma
clinical trial program, investigators proposed four immunerelated response criteria (irRC), noting all were associated
with favorable survival: “(a) shrinkage in baseline lesions,
without new lesions; (b) durable stable disease (in some
patients followed by a slow, steady decline in total tumor
burden); (c) response after an increase in total tumor burden; and (d) response in the presence of new lesions.”14
irRC, which quantifies response in two dimensions and then
calculates their products and their sums, helps reinforce
that disease progression is not equivalent to drug failure,
and that longer times, even months, may be needed for
therapeutic effect and evaluation.
To address limitations of RECIST and irRC, new criteria,
irRECIST, were introduced in 2014.15 Created as an adaptation of irRC, irRECIST is designed “to allow for treatment
evaluations and assessments that better meets both investigators’ and patients’ needs and with that better reflects
sponsors’ demands for more reliable and reproducible study
data analyses.” irRECIST also contains guidance for ambiguous cases. Like RECIST, irRECIST is unidimensional and enables high reproducibility of results, and its design produces
results that highly correlate to irRC. However, the clinical
relevance of irRECIST needs confirmation. The authors
intended that irRECIST would reduce ambiguity in assessments and promote harmonization between trial sites and
central or independent data reviewers, so that all would use
the same criteria specifically designed for immunotherapies.
39
CRO/SPONSOR
Many immunotherapy clinical trials continue to use objective response and progression-free survival as endpoints,
but overall survival is still strongly suggested.
3.
Immunotherapy sponsors and
investigators must be adept at
recognizing, characterizing, and
monitoring both immune-related adverse
events and emergent resistance.
4.
5.
6.
Reactions — adverse and otherwise
Immunotherapy sponsors and investigators must be adept
at recognizing, characterizing and monitoring both immunerelated adverse events (irAEs) and emergent resistance.
Sponsors will readily anticipate known irAEs such as flu-like
symptoms of chills, fatigue, fever, back pain, nausea, joint
ache, and headaches. However, serious adverse reactions
(SAEs) are possible in immunotherapy trials that for the
unaware can have dire consequences. For example, SAEs
among patients receiving sipuleucel-T included acute infusion reactions. One health concern with ipilimumab is its
ability to enable damaging autoimmune responses, which
can be fatal. Consequently, the FDA required a risk evaluation and mitigation strategy (REMS) and a patient medication guide as part of the ipilimumab approval.
Cancer immunotherapies, because of their significant
patient-specificities and durable responses even after treatment ends, have the potential to enable a patient’s immune
response to recognize and adapt as a cancer mutates. To
date, they have been quite successful for small populations
of patients, while demonstrating the possibility to define
optimal use for a majority of patients with cancer. Future
studies will help define the optimal use of immunotherapies in different tumor types as single agents or as part of
combination therapies with other immunotherapies or cancer drugs.
If proven, first-line, earlier stage immunotherapy treatment may improve the efficacy and longevity of patient
responses. Robust clinical trials that address the challenges
of assessing the efficacy and safety of immunotherapies in
the most appropriate patients will yield the data to build
this new treatment paradigm.
References
1. Kelly Scientific Publications, “Global & USA Cancer Immunotherapy Market Analysis to 2020.” April 2015. http://www.lifescienceindustryresearch.com/global-usa-cancer-immunotherapy-marketanalysis-to-2020.html
2. BCC Research, “Cancer Vaccines: Technologies and Global Mar-
40
kets.” January 2015. Report Code: PHM173A. http://www.bccresearch.com/market-research/pharmaceuticals/cancer-vaccinestechnologies-global-markets-report-phm173a.html.
BCC Press Release, “Global Cancer Vaccine Market to Reach $4.3
Billion in 2019.” Dec. 19, 2014.
Research and Markets, “Cancer Targeted Therapy Market & Clinical Insight 2015.” April 9, 2015. Press Release. http://globenewswire.com/news-release/2015/04/09/722930/0/en/Global-CancerTargeted-Therapy-Market-Clinical-Insight-2015.html.
FDA, “FDA Approves First-of-its-Kind Product for the Treatment
of Melanoma.” Oct. 27, 2015. Press Release. http://www.fda.gov/
NewsEvents/Newsroom/PressAnnouncements/ucm469571.htm.
American Cancer Society, “Non-specific cancer immunotherapies
and adjuvants.” Sept. 5, 2014. http://www.cancer.org/treatment/
treatmentsandsideeffects/treatmenttypes/immunotherapy/cancer-immunotherapy-nonspecific-immunotherapies
7. Staton, T. “The PD-1 wave? Report says it’s a $33B tsunami, with
BMS surfing for first place.” FiercePharmaMarketing. March 4,
2015. http://www.fiercepharmamarketing.com/story/pd-1-wavereport-says-its-33b-tsunami-bms-surfing-first-place/2015-03-04
8. NCI, “CAR T-Cell Therapy: Engineering Patients’ Immune Cells
to Treat Their Cancers.” October 16, 2014. http://www.cancer.gov/
cancertopics/treatment/research/car-t-cells
9. MD Anderson, “MD Anderson and Amgen announce agreement
to develop BiTE® therapies for myelodysplastic syndrome.” Press
Release January 12, 2015. http://www.mdanderson.org/newsroom/
news-releases/2015/md-anderson-amgen-agree-to-develop-bitetherapies-for-myelodysplastic-syndrome.html
10.Fox, B.A., et al. “Defining the critical hurdles in cancer immunotherapy.” Journal of Translational Medicine. 2011, 9:214. http://www.
translational-medicine.com/content/9/1/214 (Dec. 14, 2011)
11. Bedognetti, D., et al. “SITC/iSBTc Cancer Immunotherapy Biomarkers Resource Document: Online resources and useful tools
- a compass in the land of biomarker discovery.” Journal of Translational Medicine 2011, 9:155. http://www.translational-medicine.
com/content/9/1/155 (Sept. 19, 2011)
12. Cancer Immunotherapy Trials Network. 2015 http://citninfo.org/
index.html
13. Park, J.O., et al., “Measuring Response in Solid Tumors: Comparison of RECIST and WHO Response Criteria,” Jpn. J. Clin.
Oncol. (2003) 33 (10): 533-537.http://jjco.oxfordjournals.org/content/33/10/533.full
14. Wolchok JD, Hoos A, O’Day S, et al: Guidelines for the evaluation of immune therapy activity in solid tumors: immune-related
response criteria. Clin Cancer Res. 2009, 15:7412-20
15. Bohnsack, O., Hoos, A., Ludajic, K., “Adaptation of the immune
related response criteria: irRECIST,” Poster 1070P, ESMO 2014,
Sept. 14, 2014. Annals of Oncology. 2014, 25 (suppl_4): iv361-iv372.
10.1093/annonc/mdu342. http://oncologypro.esmo.org/MeetingResources/ESMO-2014/Immunotherapy-of-Cancer/Adaptationof-the-immune-related-response-criteria-irRECIST.
Chris Smyth, PhD, is Managing Director, Novella Clinical
April/May 2016
Learn more about
Immuno-Oncology
Insights:
Top 5 Challenges in Today’s
Immuno-Oncology Trials
Live webinar:
Thursday, April 7, 2016
11 am – 12 pm EDT
Register now for free!
www.appliedclinicaltrialsonline.com
/act/trials
Presenters:
Eric Groves, MD, PhD
Vice President, Advisory Services, Quintiles
Matthew Bentley, PhD
Clinical Project Manager, Oncology, Quintiles
Immunotherapy is one of the most promising
avenues of research in the battle against
cancer. As initial checkpoint inhibitors
come to market, the immuno-oncology
development landscape is exploding. Now,
the pressure is on to apply insights from
existing studies to ensure future trials are
quick and efficient, yield high-quality data,
and assure patient safety.
In this webinar, we’ll share lessons learned for your
immuno-oncology program through examining the
challenges that come with the new complexities of
immuno-oncology studies:
A Rapidly changing SOC
Kathleen Gray, PhD
Scientific Advisor, Q2 Solutions
A Highly complex early phase studies
Moderator:
A New safety signals and combination therapies
Lisa Henderson
A Specialized laboratory criteria
A Faster than expected enrollment
By attending this webinar you will:
A Understand the impact of new therapies and care
standards on trial planning and design.
A Identify new demands of laboratories for expedited TAT
and fail-proof sample tracking.
Sponsored by:
Quintiles: +1 973 850 7571 Toll free: +1 866 267 4479
www.quintiles.com/oncology
[email protected]
For technical questions about this webinar, please
contact Daniel Graves at [email protected]
Copyright © 2016 Quintiles
Presented by:
A Learn about the new operational challenges of
immuno-oncology studies and critical success factors
TRIAL DESIGN
Overcoming Early Phase
Oncology Challenges
Karen Ivester
How to meet the rigorous safety and efficacy demands
critical to evaluating newer targeted cancer therapies.
PEER
REVIEW
eveloping novel, safer treatments that
may be curative for many individuals living with cancer depends not only on continued use of existing products but on
the clinical and regulatory success of the
newest treatments—including promising developments focused on targeted/immunotherapy
combinations and immune checkpoint blockade
therapies which are demonstrating that immunity is the key to long-term responses. Rigorous
evaluations in clinical trials to assess efficacy
and safety in patients are critical to the development of these highly sensitive targeted/immunotherapy combinations. New molecular entity
(NME) selection, protocol development, patient
population, and principal investigator (PI) and
site selection are key areas in which to focus to
establish a foundation for the successful execution of an early phase oncology trial.
drugs were approved under the FDA accelerated
approval program, which allows early approval
of a drug for serious or life-threatening illnesses
that offer benefit over current treatment. Once
accelerated approval is granted, these drugs
must undergo additional testing. These recent
approvals in oncology were based on a “surrogate endpoint” (e.g., a laboratory measure) or
other clinical measure considered to predict the
clinical benefit of a drug.1
Given the cost of drug development (which
now exceeds $2.5 billion2), the selection of those
molecules that have the highest potential for
success is crucial. There is more at stake than
the financial cost—we must consider the patient
population, the PIs and the sites. They are all
finite and the demands placed upon them are
seriously impacting the future of clinical trials—especially early phase clinical trials.
New molecular entity selection
Protocol development and optimization
of design
D
A substantial number of NMEs move through
Phase I into Phase II; however, progression from
Phase I through approval each year is very low.
In 2014, approximately 64% of drugs moved from
Phase I to Phase II and 10.4% moved from Phase
I through approval.
From 2005 through 2013, FDA’s Center for
Drug Evaluation and Research (CDER) has averaged approximately 25 novel new drug approvals
per year. These include drugs for all diseases
and all indications. In 2014, 41 novel new drugs
were approved—six in total for oncology. These
42
Nearly 60% of protocols are amended during
the trial, according to the Tufts Center for the
Study of Drug Development.2 In order to reduce
or avoid costly protocol amendments, oncology
sponsors must view early phase protocol development holistically and assist our sponsors in
optimizing their protocol development. Important questions to consider include:
t Has the early work been done (toxicology,
animal studies, targeted starting dose established, appropriate formulation and manufacApril/May 2016
TRIAL DESIGN
turing stability and scalability evaluated)? Performing a
gap analysis can assist the client in identifying potential
issues early on; therefore, an early evaluation by regulatory can be of added value.
t Has the sponsor identified biomarkers for the mechanism of action (MOA)? Has the patient population been
selected based on these biomarkers and the MOA? Are
assays validated?
t What is the turnaround time for any procedures or assessments and how will this impact patient enrollment?
We must keep in mind these patients have been diagnosed or their disease has progressed and may also be
aggressive. Asking them to wait four to six weeks may
not be acceptable for them or for their treating surgical
or medical oncologist.
t Are all of the protocol-defined procedures and assessments appropriate for collecting data that will support a
new drug application or investigational medicinal product dossier?
t Is all of the information critical in a Phase I or Phase
IIa (proof of concept, efficacy, or mechanism of action
study) where the intent is to inform early go/no-go decisions? If it isn’t critical to inform the decision (e.g.,
not a critical variable) and not critical for safety, then
there is a need to provide a rationale for collecting the
variable, entering it into the data collection system and
monitoring it. Significant costs lie in the collection of
unnecessary information in early phase clinical research
and this is an area where protocol and electronic case
report forms (eCRFs) can be optimized and improved
considerably. As sponsors, researchers, and contract
research organizations (CROs) gain expertise in early
phase research, this will greatly improve and reduce
sponsor and CRO costs as well as reduce site burden in
data collection.
First-in-man studies for many candidate chemotherapies are constructed to identify the maximum tolerated
dose and dosing schedule. Yet, technologies have yielded
investigational agents that are designed to act with greater
precision to inhibit cancer cell growth or promote cancer
cell death.
For sponsors of these newer targeted molecular agents,
trial protocols may require an optimal biological dose
endpoint rather than a more traditional maximum tolerated dose (MTD) endpoint. Consequently, the protocol will
need to clearly define how to determine the recommended
Phase II dose, and describe new assays or procedures to
measure biologic endpoints, as well as to capture traditional patient safety assessments.
The investigational brochure (IB) contains the information that will assist and guide the regulatory and safety
advisory committees in assessing the risk/benefit of the
NME. Early compound knowledge can also assist in the
April/May 2016
most critical variables to collect regarding safety, thereby
reducing the collection of unnecessary data.
Thoughtful design of an early stage trial protocol can
help characterize biomarkers that will facilitate appropriate patient enrollment in follow-on advanced trials. Re-
For sponsors of newer targeted
molecular agents, trial protocols may
require an optimal biological dose
endpoint rather than a more traditional
maximum-tolerated dose endpoint.
member that most of the oncology drugs approved in 2014
were approved based on a surrogate endpoint or a predictor of clinical benefit.
Importance of adaptive design in early phase
clinical trials
Utilizing pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic (PK/PD) to
guide dose escalation decisions and adaptive designs that
enable adjustments to the study design and/or specific patient population as the trial progresses may increase the
speed of the dose escalation and reduce patient exposure
to doses that are not effective, as traditional designs often
start with a dose well below animal toxicity. This lowest
dose has no effect and the traditional method doesn’t allow reaching higher doses quickly.
Interest in adaptive design study methods arises from
the belief that these methods hold promise for improving drug development compared to conventional study
design methods (such as 3 + 3 designs). Adaptive design
approaches may lead to a study that provides the same
information, but more efficiently, increases the likelihood
of success, or provides more information regarding the
drug’s effect, which may also lead to more efficient followon studies.
The more progressive adaptive design algorithms permit
a change in dose level after each patient is treated based
on the accumulated responses of previously enrolled subjects. These algorithms lead to more dose-level changes,
both increases and decreases of the dose, as the algorithm selects an exposure for each subject to the dose that
will contribute the greatest amount of information towards
the ultimate conclusion. By permitting escalation after
each individual subject if that subject did not have a doselimiting toxicity (DLT), it is possible to reach the middle or
higher end of the dose-response curve with fewer subjects
at each of the prior levels.
Adaptive designs allow for completing the study more
rapidly than the traditional sequential fixed-size cohort
43
TRIAL DESIGN
design. CROs can assist sponsors in exploring the features
of different study designs with regard to the balance of efficiency (study size) and subject safety. Study simulations
with multiple combinations of escalation criteria, dosestep size, and hypothetical assumptions around relationships of exposure to severity and frequency of adverse
events (AEs) may be useful in evaluating different designs.
These simulations can assist in assessing the risks and
selecting a design that offers improved efficiency without
increasing risk excessively.4
Adaptively designed studies that enroll patients who
are most likely to benefit could finish faster and consume
fewer resources, which could yield economies in time to
development, as well as cost and reduced burden on PIs
and sites.
Finally, in assessing the protocol development, is the
imaging, procedures, and assessments in line with the
standard of care (SOC) for the patient population, the disease indication, and the country/site in which the clinical
trial is being conducted? This can vary significantly and,
prior to site selection, feasibility, and the use of prescribing data can help determine the most appropriate country/site mix. Keeping imaging and disease assessments
SOC will decrease costs and minimize regulatory delays
from radiation committees at both the country and site
levels.
Patient selection in early phase clinical trials
Novel approaches to patient/subject selection can be
used to ensure we are selecting the patients most likely to
benefit from the NME. “Genotyping” tumors from patients
is paving the way for targeted therapies for people living
with cancer. The translational research and the technical
capacity to screen large numbers of tumors have taken
years and significant collaboration between oncologists
and pathologists. Molecular profiles and tumor typing
has identified the genetic abnormalities that activate and
drive tumor growth. Understanding cancer development
at the molecular genetic level, identifying mutations, and
creating NMEs that target them are significantly improving
outcomes for patients with lymphoma, breast, brain, GI,
and lung cancers, as well as other indications. The process
of extracting and purifying DNA and genotyping it using
sophisticated software and assays can screen for hundreds
of mutations that have been identified and linked with tumor growth.5
The identification of genetic mutations in tumors has
been critical in the development of multiple treatments
in oncology and now serves as the basis for personalized,
targeted therapies as we have seen in adaptive clinical
trials such as the I-SPY 2 TRIAL. This clinical trial was
designed to treat patients with breast cancer, and the patients are assigned to treatment options (of which there
44
are many in a single trial) based on the molecular characteristics (or biomarker signatures) of their disease. 6
The genotype and mutations within specific tumors and
indications are driving the patient population for targeted
therapies. These innovative, genomically targeted therapies often provide good initial responses. For example,
drugs that target a specific BRAF gene mutation in melanoma can shrink the tumors in about half of the patients.
This approach has resulted in frequent, short-lived responses for multiple targeted therapies.
Resistance develops when tumors have multiple genomic defects that drive the disease. After the targeted
therapy knocks out one driver, another driver can take over
and activate tumor growth again. To combat resistance
and relapse, cancer immunotherapy has found a role in
combination with genomically targeted therapies. This
immune checkpoint blockade therapy has resulted in an
approach that treats the immune system which is capable
of recognizing distinctive features of cancer cells and
launching T-cells that target and shut down tumor-specific
antigens at the peptide level. The first immune checkpoint
blockade, ipilimumab (Yervoy®), has been approved for
melanoma. A second immune checkpoint inhibitor showed
that pembrolizumab (Keytruda®) is also effective in the
treatment of melanoma, and the drug was approved in
2014.
Collaboration between researchers who focus on targeted therapies and researchers who focus on immune
checkpoint therapies will likely result in the development
of targeted/immunotherapy combinations which will have
“curative potential.” 7
Patient selection, down to the genetic mutation level,
is impacting early phase clinical trials in ways not previously anticipated. The institutions that have the capability to utilize genotyping, in mass, will be at an advantage
to quickly identify patients with tumors that match the
novel therapies in these clinical trials. As adaptive designs expand and we learn more about specific therapies
and combination therapies for multiple indications, there
will be more I-SPY 2-type clinical trials in which patients
have their tumor genotyped initially and are then given
combination(s) of treatment developed specifically for
their disease.
Currently, this means sites will need to identify patients
for clinical trials that have these specific mutations. In
reality, this translates to a lower enrollment rate in some
instances, especially if there are rare or multiple genetic
mutations in the targeted tumor types or indications. It
becomes very important to research and learn more about
the occurrence of each of the genetic mutations in various
oncology indications in order to plan for the number of
sites required to enroll the study.
Working with feasibility teams to research the indicaApril/May 2016
TRIAL DESIGN
tion, frequency of mutation, and specific line of therapy
for each therapy or combination therapy will be critical to
the success of early phase oncology clinical trials as the
targets become more specialized. While challenging, the
potential for effective, long-lasting treatment outcomes in
multiple indications is a reality.
Site selection and management
With the NME identified, a well-designed protocol in
place, and the patient population selected, attention
turns to the selection and activation of appropriate clinical sites. Historical site data, specifically site enrollment
patterns with similar oncology indications, are critical to
choosing experienced and qualified sites. Knowledge of a
site helps determine which facilities have reliable PIs and
clinical research staff that both understand and can “bring
to life” the complexities of Phase I clinical trial protocols,
including:
t Patient cohort management
t Recruitment of niche patients, often with specific genetic mutations/alterations
t Management of DLTs and participation in dose-escalation decisions
t Collecting, processing, and analysis of PK/PD samples
t Extensive biological specimens
are collected, genotyped, and analyzed
t Commitment to timely data entry
and query resolution
Site efficiencies can also be created when a sponsor or contracted
CRO is familiar with each site’s institutional contracting procedures,
scientific and ethics review board
practices, and document requirements. Detailed knowledge of local
trial site compliance with federal,
local, and its own institutional regulations to protect and care for human subjects is critical.
Finally, the use of document
exchange por tals can accelerate
overall clinical trial timelines and
increase efficiencies without sacrificing quality or endangering regulatory compliance.
are withdrawing from clinical research and development
altogether. The number of clinical trial investigators has
fallen significantly since 2008 and there is a high turnover
rate among those filing 1572s.
Patient selection, down to the
genetic mutation level, is impacting
early phase clinical trials in ways
not previously anticipated.
Thirty-five percent of investigators in the U.S. are not
returning to conduct another clinical trial since initially
submitting a 1572 in 2006. The numbers of investigators
not returning to conduct clinical studies are even higher in
other countries, as reflected below:
t Canada: 55%
t South America: 53%
t Asia Pacific: 53%
t Africa: 47%
The reasons given are system and organization, time
involvement, resources, lack of clinical or scientific ratio-
When you’re passionate about what
you do, it doesn’t feel like work.
Principal investigator burden
and impact on clinical trials
While the number of NMEs and clinical trials are increasing, the number of PIs are declining and many
April/May 2016
At WCG, we’re more than an IRB; we’re a clinical services
organization. We’re passionate about protecting others, and
committed to optimizing the performance of clinical trials.
Join the team. Join the revolution. www.wcgclinical.com/careers.
45
TRIAL DESIGN
nale for the research, lack of interest in the research topic,
complexity of trials, excessive trial costs not covered by
the sponsor, and disruption to clinical practice.
Some of these barriers, such as ethics submissions, are
essential; however, many of the system, organization, and
other obstacles are under the direct control of the sponsor company and the contract research organization (CRO)
partner.3
The most burdensome tasks identified by PIs and sites
were:
t Completing contractual and regulatory documents
t Getting paid for clinical trial work on time
t Recruiting patients
t Budgeting clinical trials
t Completing feasibility surveys
t Reporting serious adverse events (SAEs)
t Taking GCP training
t Completing site information forms
t Working with ethics committees
t Interacting with remote and on-site monitors
t Retaining patients
t Tracking clinical trial supplies
This leads to a lower proportion of experienced sites
and a high turnover rates among new PIs. The resulting
impact for sponsors is higher operational costs, including
substantially higher site start-up costs in areas of site selection, qualification, and training.
What can sponsors and CROs do to assist PIs and sites?
It is important to:
t Guarantee site payments within 30 days
t Streamline start-up activities (GCP training, contracting,
essential document collection)
t Utilize innovations such as TransCelerate BioPharma
Inc.
t Standardize CDAs and CTA clauses
t Share contractual preferences
If we are to reverse the trends of declining early phase
physicians and sites and reduce turnover, sponsors and
their CRO partners must be willing and able to change
their processes and to decrease the burden for clinical
trial investigators and sites.
By assisting sponsors in becoming selective regarding
their NMEs, thoughtful about protocol designs and their
selection of the right target patient population, we can
significantly impact the exciting landscape of early phase
clinical research. We have a lot of work to do in identifying
the ideal sites and PIs and, when we find them, we must
seek to understand their needs, minimize their burdens,
and let them know we value them so they continue to
engage in the collaborations that will result in bringing
cancer treatments to people living with the disease. Sponsors, CROs, sites, PIs, and, most importantly, patients will
benefit.
46
Getty Images/ SCIEPRO
This is an exciting time in early phase oncology—novel,
targeted/immunotherapy treatments are being identified
that target significant mutations and engage the immune
response using multiple formulations and delivery systems.
Oncology drugs and medical device, diagnostics, radiation, proton therapy, and nanotechnology are fusing
to have a significant impact on cancer treatment that will
continue to fuel innovation. Within the next decade or
two, many cancers could become a fully treatable illness
for many individuals. We may even find, in many indications, cancer is curable as we focus and extend our collaborations and share knowledge as we move forward.
References
1. CDER’s Novel New Drugs 2014 Summary, January 2015.
2. Source: Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development
3. E. Cascade, M. Nixon, and C. Sears, “Sustaining the Investigator Pool: Understanding Operational Burden and Implementing
Valuable Supportive Solutions,” Applied Clinical Trials (Nov. 3,
2014).
4. Adaptive Design Clinical Trials for Drugs and Biologics, Draft
Guidance, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services,
Food and Drug Administration, Center for Drug Evaluation and
Research (CDER) Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research
(CBER), February 2010.
5. L. Ellisen, K. Flaherty, and A. Shaw, “Tumor Genotyping Brings
Personalized, Targeted Therapies to Patients, “Advances at the
Mass General Cancer Center, Summer 2010
6. Sponsor: QuantumLeap Healthcare Collaborative, Clinical Trials.gov
7. P. Sharma and J Allison, “Review highlights potential of cancer immunotherapy plus targeted therapy, “MD Anderson News
Release (April 9, 2015).
Karen Ivester, RN, MA, is Vice President, Clinical Operations,
Ivester Research
April/May 2016
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49
A CLOSING THOUGHT
To see more A Closing Thought articles, visit
The Promise of Precision Medicine
ur health is a reflection of who we are and how we live. In an
information age that allows freedom of choice and ubiquity of
options, the rise of personalized care is inevitable. The promise
of precision medicine not only offers a newfound science to treat
life-threatening illnesses, but also realizes an ideal medical care approach, treating each person as a valued individual via pinpointed
diagnostic assessments and optimized therapeutic interventions.
O
The marker of success
for precision medicine
is that the term simply
vanishes, and its
principles become
fundamental to
modern medicine.
Steve Rosenberg
Senior Vice President and General
Manager, Oracle Health Sciences
Technology continues to shape the
way people live, with on-demand access to immense information and multichannel communication. The scientific
boom of gene sequencing is amplified
by our abilit y to correlate genot y pe
with phenotype and behavior, enabling
rapid advances in disease diagnosis and
treatment.
A single, human, whole genome sequence often can generate 500 megabytes of raw data. It’s easy to see how
this can quickly turn into petabytes of
data with even a relatively small cohort
of patients. Even then, more data will
be added to the mix, as pathogenomics,
proteomics, and metabolomics evolve.
Researchers require high-performance
tools to manage increasingly large, complex data sets to extract scientific intelligence from raw data.
The White House Precision Medicine
Initiative’s Cancer MoonShot program
migrates from the realm of fantasy, to
distinct possibility, and perhaps, to reality through a merger of information technology and genetic science. To improve
the lives of people with cancer and other
life-threatening diseases, a set of key
technology elements will be necessary
to ensure success:
t Collaboration between researchers and
clinicians, aggregating data at the patient level in support of disease-oriented
research cohorts.
50
t A high-performance, technology infrastructure to enable rapid, accurate analysis of large volumes of data.
t Structured data models to ensure consistency and reproducibility in results.
.
t Scalability to ensure that knowledge
generated through research can be applied broadly across the clinical setting,
while longitudinally, clinical data continues to feed the research environment.
Ultimately, cancer therapy is only the
beginning of the coming wave of the
kinds of scientific advancements linked
to genomics and accelerated by informatics. Every aspect of the human care
spectrum offers areas of potential advancement, from birth and hereditar y
disorders, through wellness and pre-sickness, all the way to disease management.
Today, only about 38% of consumers
have heard of precision medicine, have
only shallow knowledge about it and do
not associate it with genetic medicine.*
In the end, the marker of success for precision medicine is that the term simply
vanishes, and its principles become fundamental to modern medicine.
*PMC Survey: U.S. Public Opinion About
Personalized Medicine, 2014
http://www.personalizedmedicinecoalition.org/
Userfiles/PMC-Corporate/file/us_public_opinion_personalized_medicine.slides.pdf
April/May 2016
There are heroes among us.
Pharma Heroes is a movement designed to shine a light on the heroes who walk among us.
It’s time to celebrate the heroic and largely unrecognized daily acts that move our industry forward.
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