COVID-19 and the APAC CRO Landscape | Avance Clinical featured in Biospectrum Asia
January 5, 2021
Australia has been recognized globally for its handling of the COVID-19 pandemic with strict quarantine systems and advanced contact tracing, resulting in low numbers of cases and deaths. Therefore we have seen a dramatic increase in the number of USA sponsors moving their trials to Australia.
“Australia has been recognized globally for its handling of the COVID-19 pandemic with strict quarantine systems and advanced contact tracing, resulting in low numbers of cases and deaths. Therefore we have seen a dramatic increase in the number of USA sponsors moving their trials to Australia.”
The global disruption presented a number of operational challenges including:
A need to rapidly pivot to full adoption of eClinical technologies because traditional working practices and methods were no longer practical.
Initially, patient/volunteer participation in clinical trials decreased at some sites because participants were not wanting to attend clinics or hospitals for fear of the virus.
Some sites in Australia were temporarily closed while they introduced new work practices to protect staff and patients/volunteers.
COVID-19 studies targeting countries with significant patient populations, rapidly dominated the global sector, resulting in decreased attention, site resources and funding for non-COVID related therapies.
Employee adaptions to new working environments i.e. working from a home office.
Conduct of business development activities needed to change as the ability to create new business connections and partnerships via conferences and face to face meetings became no longer possible.
