A new report on how trends in market growth for virtual clinical trials are expected to play out in the next five years indicates an anticipation for a compound annual growth rate of 5.9 % during the forecast period.
According to the report from ResearchAndMarkets.com, the oncology segment is expected to dominate the market over the forecast period due to expanding government initiatives for cancer awareness, a rising prevalence of cancer, and increasing research and development (R&D) activities tied to the development of cancer drugs.
As the worldwide cancer burden is rising, virtual clinical trials are seen as minimizing cancer patients’ risks from immunosuppression, travel burden, therapeutic diversity, and regulatory complexity by decreasing time spent on face-to-face trial visits.
To keep patients safe, oncology clinical trial investigators and sponsors have quickly incorporated virtual and remote trials. For example, the report notes how, in October 2019, Georgetown University Medical Center used cloud-based virtual interconnected computing techniques to reduce the time it took to access cancer patients’ profiles. In November 2019, Janssen and PRA Health Sciences launched a digital clinical trial set-up for a completely decentralized, indication-seeking, mobile clinical study. In 2020, Parexel performed more than 100 decentralized trials, including hybrid and virtual/decentralized approaches.
The report highlights how North America stands as one of the largest revenue holders in the global virtual clinical trials market, due to the presence of major companies that manufacture pharmaceuticals coupled with rising government and corporate activities focused on investment in the development of new medicines. Moreover, the region is expected to continue its dominance over the forecast period, which the report attributes to strong R&D trends in the region, growing adoption of new technologies in clinical research, and government support.
Edited by Gary Cramer
