ClinicalTrials.EU Officially Launched Across Europe
The European Clinical Trials Information Network (ClinicalTrials.EU) has officially launched its patient-focused platform across Europe.
The platform aims to address one of the most significant challenges in medical and pharmaceutical research: patient recruitment for clinical trials. By giving patients greater access to the latest trial information in seven European languages, it seeks to streamline and improve the recruitment process.
Currently, there are over 15,500 clinical trials registered in Europe that are in the recruitment or pre-recruitment stages. However, up to 80% of these trials encounter problems attracting enough participants, which often results in delays, increased costs, or even cancellation. At the same time, 86% of potential trial participants are missed by traditional recruitment methods. ClinicalTrials.EU provides a reliable and transparent way for researchers to connect with patients, with information aggregated from both public and private sources and presented in an accessible and engaging manner.
Dr Łukasz Izbicki, the founder of the platform, previously created the Farmacja.net Group, which was acquired last year by IQVIA. Commenting on the launch, he said: “Our mission at ClinicalTrials is simple. To connect research centres actively working on rare and serious diseases and illnesses with patients actively seeking appropriate therapies and create ‘Clinical Trials: Easily Understood’.”
He went on to say, “Until now there has been no single place where both parties could meet with confidence and find comprehensive information in a number of different languages. This has been a huge barrier in the development of treatments, as often, the absolute numbers of patients for rare diseases might be very small and geographically diverse and it can be challenging to locate and engage with them. As many as 80% of trials face challenges with patient recruitment.”
Traditionally, recruiting patients for clinical trials has been expensive and inefficient, with researchers often relying on existing databases or referrals from healthcare professionals. This process often excludes many potential candidates from suitable trials. ClinicalTrials.EU aims to democratise the process, empowering patients to find trials that are right for them, with the help of AI-powered pre-screening, which ensures a more suitable match for researchers.
Accelerating the recruitment process means clinical trials can be conducted more swiftly, leading to faster development of new therapies. Additionally, it enables decentralised research, allowing most or all trial activities to be conducted remotely from the patient’s home. This is particularly important for individuals who cannot travel long distances to participate in a clinical trial.
Although this model is new to Europe, it already accounts for nearly 25% of the clinical trials market in the United States due to its convenience for patients, cost savings for sponsors, and its ability to streamline recruitment.
The European clinical trials market was valued at over USD 6 billion in 2023, and it is forecasted to reach USD 9.6 billion by 2029, with a compound annual growth rate of 7% between 2024 and 2029.
Even before its formal launch, ClinicalTrials.EU gained significant traction within the industry. The platform is already partnering with NORD, the US Rare Disease Organisation, and has joined the EU Cross Border Clinical Trials Initiative (EU-X-CT), a joint effort of the EU Parliament and EFPICA. It also collaborates with several Patient Advocacy Groups, the Polish Medical Research Agency, and academic institutions on non-commercial trials. Commercially, it works with Sponsors, CROs, and Sites.
Dr Izbicki remarked: “We are excited at the amount of traction we have already seen prior to a formal rollout. And this is just the start! Currently, we aggregate data for the database from publicly available sources, we have enabled individual sponsors and research centres to post information about their projects on the platform. We have acquired the first commercial customers in this area and we are seeing huge interest in this area.”
He further added, “By the end of the year, we plan to start working with the 30 largest CROs (Contract Research Organisations) globally, which represent around 10 percent of the clinical trials market. Our mission is to increase access to clinical trials for patients who, for various reasons, are not treated as effectively as they could be.”
Prof Wojciech Fendler, Head of the Polish Medical Research Agency, concluded: “Clinical trials are critical for developing new therapies, and the success of recruitment depends on providing both patients and researchers with a unified platform as ClinicalTrials.eu that facilitates access to information and collaboration, which until now has been scattered across various sources.”