The Cancer Drug Development Forum (CDDF) held a live webinar on “Clinical Research in Central and Eastern Europe, Realising the opportunities “ on Monday 12 February 2024 at 17:00 (CET) / 11:00 (EST). In this webinar, Susan Bhatti (Merck BV, NL), Mark Lawler (Queen’s University Belfast & CDDF), Wiktor Janicki (AstraZeneca, PL) provided interesting talks followed by a Q&A discussion moderated by Axel Glasmacher (CDDF). Here are key takeaways from the webinar:
🔶[Susan Bhatti (Merck BV, NL): What do we need to change to have smarter, faster, more patient centered trials in Europe]
- Clinical trials are an important option for patients in Europe to potentially benefit from the latest advances in clinical research
- The number of clinical trials in the EU has been steadily decreasing since 2020 and the downward trend was even more pronounced in 2023
- To reverse this trend a multi-stakeholder effort is needed by academia, regulators, patients and industry to bring smarter, faster, more patient centric trials to Europe
🔶[Mark Lawler (Queen’s University Belfast & CDDF): Deploying data to understand cancer research challenges and opportunities in Central and Eastern Europe]
- Data intelligence is key to understanding opportunities and challenges to clinical cancer research in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE)
- We need to look at cancer clinical research in the context of the COVID 19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine and the global economic downturn
- There is an urgent need to mitigate these impacts, particularly given the primary role of cancer clinical trials in Ukraine and Russia on the CEE region
🔶[Wiktor Janicki (AstraZeneca, PL): Does Poland have the potential to become the next cancer research hub?]
- Poland and more broadly CEE is an attractive place for cancer research as evidenced by productivity and quality metrics
- The development of the AZ global R&D hub in Poland can act as an inspiration for similar industry initiatives
- There is significant untapped research potential in the region given its human capital, site development and recognition of the importance of clinical trials by the governments
🔶Watch the webinar recording HERE
🔶View the key takeaway video HERE