In the past year, nearly 5,000 clinical trials were launched to test life-saving treatments and vaccines for the novel coronavirus.
Covid-19 clinical trial enrollment is 80% higher than average. However, this is less impressive when considering that for many diseases, such as cancer, less than 10% of eligible patients enroll in a trial.
Patients often only enroll in a drug trial when existing forms of treatments have already failed. On top of that, not all diagnosed patients are eligible for trial participation — determining eligibility alone can be a herculean task.
For those that are eligible, participating in a trial is often a cost- and time-intensive endeavor. The process is inefficient for other stakeholders too: drug trials average nearly a decade, costing over $1B on average.
The $52B clinical trials market needs a makeover.
Startups and big tech are actively developing clinical trial solutions, from IoT for remote monitoring, to machine learning for electronic health record (EHR) processing, to AI-based cybersecurity for data protection.