Patients want access to clinical trials — here's how to give it to them

While the primary goal of clinical trials is to help identify potential new treatments that improve people's health and save lives, it's the unfortunate truth that the patient experience is often not prioritized.?This discrepancy becomes evident in industry findings, highlighting a substantial disparity between the services patients want from pharmaceutical companies compared to what they actually receive.

The survey, titled Why Pharma Companies Can’t Ignore Patient Services, gathered 2,000 responses from patients across the United States. Below, we've outlined key highlights from the survey. These insights provide context to crucial perspectives and aim to assist sponsors in better comprehending patient recruitment for clinical trials.

Key clinical trial participation statistics

Patients expect to receive services from pharmaceutical companies

One of the key takeaways from this robust patient survey is that the majority of patients — 76% of them, to be exact — believe that pharmaceutical companies are responsible for providing information and services to help patients manage their health. These patients reported that receiving product information, rewards programs, adherence support, and financial assistance were not just perks, but things they expected to receive.

Services need to be communicated and easily accessible

Patients rated any services that helped them to learn about their condition and better manage their health as very important and highly valued. However, in general, these services were underserved, underutilized, or nonexistent. Because the demand is there but these services are often not accessed, it may indicate that patients are not aware of the services available to them or have difficulty accessing them in their current form.

Patients want to receive information about clinical trials

In regards to clinical trial participation, statistics from this survey show that 28% of patients would like to receive this information from pharmaceutical companies regarding research studies — however, only 7% reported that they currently receive information on accessing clinical trials from a pharmaceutical company. This may be indicative of a communication breakdown, but shows that if patients received the right information, they may be more likely to enroll.

Clinical trial participants are highly satisfied.

Among the patients who had received access to clinical trials, 63% reported satisfaction with their experience. Though clinical trials are one of the least used services provided by pharmaceutical companies, this high of satisfaction score is indicative of the positive benefits of participating and could be used as advertising collaterals for future studies.

Boosting clinical trial patient enrollment through communication

This research shows that patients are eager to receive services and information from pharmaceutical companies, especially regarding clinical trials — but how can companies reach them? One of the key ways to do this is by reaching patients where they are and communicating with them in a way that’s likely to resonate.?

As Aaron Kowalski, PhD, the President and CEO at JDRF, said, “JDRF has invested in [Antidote’s Match tool] to give our community an easy way to understand the opportunities out there and how to participate in trials. The facts are these trials really move the science forward. We’re thrilled with our partnership with Antidote because it’s getting the word out.”

At Antidote, we know that patients are looking for trials and we know how to reach them. We have built a robust partner network of health portals, patient organizations, and advocacy groups who work with us to offer clinical trial information as a service to their communities. Our clinical trial search tool, Match, aggregates trials directly from ClinicalTrials.gov so individuals can see their options in an intuitive, patient-centric way. To learn more about our ability to reach patients, get in touch today.