A comparison of the potential of Clinical Trials Centers within both public and commercial trial facilities

Abstract

Clinical trials are an integral part of the process of developing new drugs, diagnostic methods and medical devices. Clinical trials offer patients the chance to access alternative treatment methods, thereby improving their quality of life, and even achieving recovery. Additionally, clinical trials provide the opportunity for regular contact with a specialist doctor and easier access to diagnostics, ensuring a faster therapeutic path for the patient. One of the key aspects of conducting clinical trials is choosing the right investigator and research center so as to meet specific criteria and guarantee high quality of the conducted studies. Therefore, the aim of the current study was to evaluate the differences between conducting clinical trials in public and commercial centers. A diagnostic survey was used in the study and the research tool chosen was a proprietary questionnaire belonging to the research technique as survey questionnaire. Questionnaires were constructed for the appropriate stakeholders/respondents, namely: doctors and employees of pharmaceutical companies and CROs. The analysis showed that employees of pharmaceutical companies, given the choice, prefer to cooperate with commercial centers. They choose public centers only when they need a center for phase one trials or those requiring hospitalization. The research obtained shows that public centers should improve administrative processes in order to optimize tasks such as contracting or obtaining a study.