Science 37 publishes CNS therapeutic data from CNS survey

Science 37 Holdings published new CNS therapeutic data validating the growing trend toward decentralization as two-thirds of CNS survey respondents plan to execute an agile or decentralized clinical trial in 2022, an increase of more than 35 percent from last year. According to analysis, the CNS Research & Development spend will reach $32 billion USD by 2026, resulting in more than 4,000 clinical trials. To uncover these new trends in CNS clinical trials methodologies, Science 37 conducted a study of more than 70 clinical research executives, between December 2021 and January 2022. For CNS studies, survey respondents cited unexpected delays, data quality and limited patient populations among the key challenges for clinical trials, with effective patient recruitment as the single biggest challenge by more than 100% comparatively to the second challenge of endpoint collection. Being able to eliminate geographic barriers with agile and decentralized approaches and helping to ease patient burden can help alleviate these concerns and enable more efficient centralized enrollment into studies. The new data and insights also paint a vivid picture of the clinical trials landscape for the year ahead for CNS studies, suggesting significant increases in agile and decentralized approaches across numerous conditions-including major depressive disorder, Alzheimer's disease, and Parkinson's disease-and executed with a myriad of permutations of patient communities, mobile nursing, telemedicine investigators and connected devices - further demonstrating the need for a centralized Operating System with unified technology and centralized networks to effectively execute. Among the findings: Less than 60 percent of CNS respondents are planning to execute a traditional, site-based clinical trial in 2022, down from three in four for the previous year. Unexpected delays, data quality, and limited patient populations all ranked highly among the issues keeping respondents up at night, regarding CNS trials in general. Respondents cited the greatest single challenge of running an effective CNS study was patient recruitment by more than 100% comparatively to the second challenge of endpoint collection. Electronic clinical outcomes assessment and electronic patient-reported outcomes were cited as the most prevalent decentralized components in CNS, with two-thirds of CNS respondents planning to use these tools - showing the rising embrace of digital data collection and evidence generation. Among the largest-growing decentralized components of CNS studies cited were mobile nurses, up 40 percent and up 38 percent, respondents cited usage of Metasites or virtual sites that can enable more universal geographic coverage and access for patients. The three greatest perceived benefits of including agile and decentralized components in CNS clinical trials were increased patient retention, increased patient diversity and faster patient recruitment.