Anyone with experience in drug development understands the importance of reliable data. For stakeholders at all stages of all pipelines, information is like gold. The effort that goes into getting the best data is immense, and it often takes years to build the necessary amount of evidence.
In the wake of the COVID-19 crisis, different entities around the world are trying to minimize the amount of time it takes to get critical information. One promising endeavor is the COVID-19 Evidence Accelerator:
An initiative launched by the Reagan-Udall Foundation for the FDA in collaboration with Friends of Cancer Research (Friends) to provide a unique venue for major data organizations, government and academic researchers, and health systems to gather and design quick-turn-around queries and share their results. The Accelerator will bring together the country’s leading experts in health data aggregation and analytics in a unified effort to share insights, compare results, and answer key questions about COVID-19 treatment and response as quickly as possible.
There is going to be a tidal wave of clinical trials in the future, and the urgency associated with the creation of a vaccine means that these trials need to be done as quickly and as safely as possible. Having a robust database of real-world evidence is going to help with therapy development and the long-term impact of that development. The administration of a treatment is not the final step.
TREND is excited to be a part of this effort. We are glad to be just one of the groups coming together to facilitate rapid progress.