The European Clinical Trials Information Network, known as ClinicalTrials.EU, has announced the official launch of its platform across Europe today.
The platform, designed with patients in mind, aims to address one of the most significant barriers in medical and pharmaceutical research – patient recruitment. It seeks to democratise access to clinical trials by offering patients accurate and comprehensive details on trials in seven European languages.
At present, more than 15,500 clinical trials in Europe are either preparing for recruitment or are already recruiting. Unfortunately, around 80% will face issues in securing or retaining enough participants, causing delays, higher costs, or even project cancellations. Simultaneously, 86% of potential trial participants are missed by the traditional recruitment model. ClinicalTrials.EU serves as a reliable link between patients and researchers, gathering information from a range of public and commercial sources, and presenting it in a way that is clear and accessible to patients.
Dr Łukasz Izbicki, the founder, who also established Farmacja.net Group (later acquired by IQVIA), commented: “Our mission at ClinicalTrials is simple. To connect research centres actively working on rare and serious diseases and illnesses with patients actively seeking appropriate therapies and create ‘Clinical Trials: Easily Understood’.”
He added, “Until now there has been no single place where both parties could meet with confidence and find comprehensive information in a number of different languages. This has been a huge barrier in the development of treatments, as often, the absolute numbers of patients for rare diseases might be very small and geographically diverse and it can be challenging to locate and engage with them. As many as 80% of trials face challenges with patient recruitment.”
The traditional method of recruiting participants for clinical trials is often inefficient and expensive, with researchers frequently relying on existing patient lists or doctor referrals. This can mean many eligible patients are not identified. ClinicalTrials.EU aims to empower patients by providing them with tools to find relevant treatments themselves, assisted by AI-driven pre-screening. This gives researchers access to a more appropriate pool of participants.
The acceleration of the recruitment process means that clinical trials can be run more efficiently, and new therapies can reach the market more swiftly. This model also opens up decentralised research, where trial activities can be conducted at the patient’s home. This is especially advantageous for patients who, due to location or other circumstances, cannot travel to participate in clinical trials.
This approach is new to Europe but already makes up almost 25% of the clinical trials market in the United States, where its convenience for patients, cost savings for sponsors, and recruitment effectiveness are well established.
In 2023, the European clinical trials market was valued at more than USD 6 billion and is projected to grow to USD 9.6 billion by 2029, with a compound annual growth rate of 7% from 2024 to 2029.
During its beta phase, ClinicalTrials.EU has already gained considerable industry recognition. The platform is partnered with NORD, the US Rare Disease Organisation, and is a member of the EU Cross Border Clinical Trials Initiative (EU-X-CT), a collaborative effort by the EU Parliament and EFPICA. It is also working closely with Patient Advocacy Groups, the Polish Medical Research Agency, and academic sites on non-commercial trials, while commercially partnering with Sponsors, CROs, and Sites.
Dr Izbicki said: “We are excited at the amount of traction we have already seen prior to a formal rollout. And this is just the start! Currently, we aggregate data for the database from publicly available sources, we have enabled individual sponsors and research centres to post information about their projects on the platform. We have acquired the first commercial customers in this area and we are seeing huge interest in this area.”
He continued, “By the end of the year, we plan to start working with the 30 largest CROs (Contract Research Organisations) globally, which represent around 10 percent of the clinical trials market. Our mission is to increase access to clinical trials for patients who, for various reasons, are not treated as effectively as they could be.”
Prof Wojciech Fendler, Head of the Polish Medical Research Agency, concluded: “Clinical trials are critical for developing new therapies, and the success of recruitment depends on providing both patients and researchers with a unified platform as ClinicalTrials.eu that facilitates access to information and collaboration, which until now has been scattered across various sources.”