STAT August 11, 2020
The biotech and pharma industries are at a pivotal moment, facing a pandemic that’s caused three out of every four clinical trials worldwide to be suspended or delayed. At the same time that hundreds of companies are racing to move forward with trials for Covid-19 treatments and vaccines, thousands more are worrying about how they’ll be able to conduct other trials in the midst of a global lockdown.
This is bad for business, and far worse for the patients afflicted by diseases and conditions whose drug trials have been sidelined for months.
Some companies are exploring remote clinical trials that rely on participants using digital devices like smartwatches and pulse oximeters at home. The approach makes sense, but there’s a...