Tempus fugit: And time especially flies when it comes clinical trials. Covance, like so many other CROs, is teaming up with the suitably named Tempus to try to clip time’s wings.
The CRO, part of medtech giant LabCorp, has signed up to Tempus’ so-called TIME Trial Network, designed to speed up patient enrollment specifically for cancer trials through a data-driven approach.
This “aims to transform the clinical trial model and modernize how they are designed and executed,” according to a joint statement. Covance will tap Tempus' major series of libraries that house clinical and molecular data as well as an operating system to make that information "accessible and useful.”
The idea is to use the TIME Trial program—which uses real-time clinical and molecular data—to screen and match patients to biomarker-targeted trials. Those using it have been able to start their trials on behalf of patients in as few as 10 day, Tempus states.
Slow enrollment is a major issue for all CROs, as well as matching the right patients to the right trials; increasingly, companies like Tempus are offering new tech-based solutions for this with the aim of cutting down drug development times and costs.
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“LabCorp’s drug development business has extensive experience in executing clinical trials and our leadership position in oncology, coupled with Tempus’ innovative clinical trial model, provides thousands of physicians and patients easier access to more therapeutics,” said Paul Kirchgraber, M.D., CEO at Covance.
“With oncology patient enrollment rates being in the single digits, it’s imperative that we find comprehensive approaches to accelerate oncology clinical trials and bring new treatments to patients faster. The combination of our capabilities will increase the ability to identify patients with specific genetic markers and link them to trial sites, thus greatly expanding access to hard-to-find patient pools for faster enrollment of the right patients for precision medicine oncology clinical trials.”