Integration of patient-reported outcomes in multiregional confirmatory clinical trials

An increase in the pursuit of new therapeutic targets, changes to the regulatory environment, and business pressures to expand clinical trials to more countries have significantly increased the complexity of confirmatory clinical studies that incorporate PROMs. Decisions to participate in collaborative efforts for endpoint development or proceed independently are made in the context of competing priorities of drug development timelines, drug differentiation strategies, the need for patient-related value messages, and the depth of a sponsor pipeline within specific disease areas. Study logistics are critically important; factors such as concept cultural relevancy, respondent literacy level, and quality of cross-cultural adaptation of PROMs must be evaluated when integrating into confirmatory clinical trials. Awareness of the issues relating to PROs in multiregional studies will enable companies to better plan studies and interpret results.