Patient social network for clinical trials
How it would be convenient if the companies knew about everything that could worry patients before clinical trials started. Bioverativ is about to find out.
While designing an upcoming trial for a new hemophilia drug, the Biogen spinoff tapped patient social network creator MyHealthTeams to help find out what ailed hemophilia patients after their bleeding was controlled. The goal was that marketers would be able to introduce corrections into the clinical study design.
As a result, it turned out that fifty-six percent of respondents—all from MyHealthTeams’ MyHemophiliaTeam network—reported ongoing pain, and, given that pain, 65% said they needed help with depression. And Bioverativ, in turn, designed its trial to address those unmet needs by gauging pain in addition to bleeding.
MyHealthTeams co-founder Eric Peacock noted that the Bioverativ for the first time entered into a partnership agreement with social network developers about two years ago to ensure the relevance of ongoing studies for patients with hemophilia.
Incorporating the new research into trial design, meanwhile, aligns with the “patient-centric” corporate image Bioverativ’s execs said they wanted to take with them from Biogen. “Biogen has, I think, a terrific corporate brand that is about putting the patient first, and it’s about innovation, and we’ll carry that forward absolutely,” Bioverativ CEO John Cox said in a January interview.
Source: fiercepharma.
