New EULAR trial network to clear research pathways ‘fraught with banana skins’
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The goal of a new EULAR initiative linking trial centers across Europe is quicker, more efficient clinical trials across the spectrum of rheumatic diseases, according to a speaker at the EULAR 2024 Congress.
“Please communicate this to your communities,” Andrew Cope, PhD, EULAR clinical research sub-committee chair, and head of the Center for Rheumatic Diseases at King’s College London, said during a press conference at the meeting. “Tell them that we’re in business to do high-quality trials and to support both sponsors in the academic and private sector.”
The program, called the EULAR Network of Trial Centers (ENTRI), is designed to centralize key details about European trial centers — such as their areas of expertise, staffing and technology — to speed up the process of designing and initiating clinical trials. The goal is to clear up a research pathway that Cope described as expensive, time-consuming and “fraught with banana skins.”
“We’re providing the necessary infrastructure so that anybody can come to us and say, ‘I want to do a study in this particular condition. Who should we talk to?’” Cope said.
The program is already well on its way to enrolling the target number of centers, he added.
“As of today, we’re very pleased to report that we’ve had expressions of interest — formal applications to become members of this network — from nearly 150 centers,” Cope said. “We’re aiming for upwards of 400 to 500 centers across 43 member states.”
One of the network’s strengths is that it welcomes more trial centers than just the “centers of excellence” typically used by the private sector, according to Cope.
“By opening up the network to hundreds and hundreds of centers, where the populations are extensive and there is training and the expertise — and EULAR can provide some of that — we’ll be in a much better position to do some of the more challenging studies,” he said.
Asked which area of rheumatology he hopes the network addresses first, Cope said “the interest from stakeholders in the private sector has been almost universally with the more complicated conditions.”
He added that pain is “another big area we want to cover,” as well as fatigue.
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Cope A. EULAR launches the EULAR network of trial centres (ENTRI), a unique Initiative transforming the way clinical trials are delivered. Presented at: EULAR 2024 Congress; June 12 to June 15, 2024, Vienna, Austria.
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