HEALTH: Cost of clinical trials worries donors
Clinical Trials Wednesday, June 6th, 2012Irinnews.org: LONDON, 24 May 2012 (IRIN) – The more medical successes there are, the more it costs to find the next one, prompting donors to demand more from researchers carrying out large-scale trials of drugs, vaccines and global health impacts.
“As a funder, I hate clinical trial applications,” said Jimmy Whitworth, head of international activities at the science funding division of UK-based Wellcome Trust, which finances health research.
Clinical trial costs have spiralled in recent years – one recent report estimated a 70 percent cost rise per patient between 2008 and 2011 – but without sound evidence of beneficial medicinal effect, regulatory agencies will not approve.
A clinical drug trial can take up to 12 years, enrol thousands of participants across continents, and cost from as much as US$1.3 billion to nearly $12 billion for each new drug before it is approved for public use.
And the costs keep climbing. “We need other ways of funding that are more flexible, quicker,” said Geoff Garnett, deputy director of the HIV Department at the US-based Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
“I think a lot of what we should be doing is public health trials rather than clinical trials,” Garnett commented. “If we bog down our public health trials with clinical trial requirements, then we miss out on some of the important behavioural and organizational interventions that make clinical care and prevention work much better.” read more
