On May 20, known as International Clinical Trials Day in China, a number of Chinese hospitals and related groups provided an in-depth educational session to help enlighten Chinese patients about participating in local clinical trials. Over 30,000 Chinese attended these informational sessions, and China also started a patient consultation cluster. The reason for this event was the fact that China’s huge population provides patients with a variety of clinical trial opportunities, yet recruitment for trials is still not that easy.
According to several surveys conducted with Chinese people, although a majority of those surveyed had some knowledge of what clinical trials were used for, almost 40% of the respondents expressed concern about participating due to safety risks and the newness of innovative drugs. Hospitals, clinical research organizations, and drug companies are all now offering educational programs to help with providing patient education. Future International Clinical Trial Days will become more frequent in China. In addition, feedback from future patient surveys will provide hospitals, CROs, and drug companies the information they need to tailor future recruitment programs, address patient concerns, etc.
Written by: Ames Gross – President and Founder, Pacific Bridge Medical (PBM)
Mr. Gross founded PBM in 1988 and has helped hundreds of medical companies with regulatory and business development issues in Asia. He is recognized nationally and internationally as a leader in the Asian medical markets. Mr. Gross has a BA degree, Phi Beta Kappa, from the University of Pennsylvania and an MBA from Columbia University.
Source used in the article:https://clinregs.niaid.nih.gov/country/china