Shared Control: Novel Trial Design Works In COVID, But Will Sponsors Buy In?

05 Jul 2020

• By Michael McCaughan

COVID-19 has helped demonstrate the viability of platform trials with a shared control arm. That model is easier to extol than it is for sponsors to embrace, especially outside of crisis mode.

Foot pedals are levers of forklift car that are activated by the driver's feet to control certain aspects of the vehicle's operation brake pedal Car accelerator controls. - Image — Will industry be willing to give up some control of clinical research if it means studies might go faster?

The lessons of the COVID-19 pandemic will be examined for years to come, but one message is already clear: the value of large platform trials involving multiple potential treatments in a single protocol.

Specifically, the United Kingdom’s RECOVERY (Randomised Evaluation of COVID-19 Therapy) trial, which has now delivered three definitive outcomes just...