The spread of COVID-19 across the globe had huge impacts on clinical trials in 2020 and beyond. Lockdowns meant that many patients could no longer travel for studies, whilst social distancing and safety protocols changed the way trials ran. At the same time, the world's attention was turning to clinical trials in the hope that vaccines would be approved in record time.
One of the highlights of Clinical Trials Europe Virtual 2020, was a live panel of leading industry experts discussing the lessons learnt and challenges ahead in combating COVID-19. Watch the full session at the top of this page.
The panel featured:
- MODERATOR: Pamela Tenaerts, Executive Director, Clinical Trials Transformation Initiative (CTTI)
- Elizabeth Eagling-Vose, Director, Head of Clinical Operations, Vaccitech
- Robert Dingwall, Professor of Sociology, Nottingham Trent University
- Bodo Lutz, Clinical Risk Management and Data Integrity QA, Novartis
- Fiona Maini, Principal - Global Compliance and Strategy, Medidata
- Janis Little, Vice President, R&D Quality, Moderna
- Oren Cohen, Chief Medical Officer and Head of Global Clinical Pharmacology Services, Covance
The panel discuss the race to develop a vaccine for COVID-19, how technologies such as AI and modelling can be used to speed up the development timelines and the ethical and regulatory considerations around it. They discuss evidence of companies jumping the gun and trying to get product onto the market too quickly, and the subsequent enforcement ramping up against this - what will the long lasting regulatory impact look like?
And post-approval, how can we scale the manufacture of vaccines significantly and get global co-operation in the roll-out, whilst maintaining public confidence in the management of vaccine development.
Away from vaccine development, the panel discuss supply change management and keeping clinical labs open in order for clinical trials to run during a pandemic.
Watch the full session at the top of this page.